Samuel George Morton

Samuel George Morton (January 26, 1799 – May 15, 1851) was an American physician, natural scientist, and writer who argued against the single creation story of the Bible, monogenism, instead supporting a theory of multiple racial creations, polygenism.

Samuel George Morton
Born(1799-01-26)January 26, 1799[1]
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DiedMay 15, 1851(1851-05-15) (aged 52)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
EducationUniversity of Pennsylvania
Edinburgh University
OccupationPhysician, natural scientist, writer
Signature

He was a prolific writer of books on various subjects from 1823 to 1851. He wrote Geological Observations in 1828, and both Synopsis of the Organic Remains of the Cretaceous Group of the United States and Illustrations of Pulmonary Consumption in 1834. His first medical essay, on the user of cornine in intermittent fever, in 1825 was published in the Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences.[2] His bibliography includes Hybridity in Animals and Plants (1847), Additional Observation on Hybridity (1851), and An Illustrated System of Human Anatomy (1849).

Early life and career

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Morton was raised as a Quaker and educated at Westtown School and the University of Pennsylvania, from where he graduated in 1820.[3] He then earned an advanced degree from the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, and began to practice medicine in Philadelphia in 1824. He was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Medical College in Philadelphia[4] and served as its professor of anatomy from 1839 until his resignation in 1843.[5] He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1844.[6] He is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Section G, Lot 179.[7]

"American School" ethnography

Samuel George Morton is often thought of as the originator of "American School" ethnography, a school of thought in antebellum American science that claimed the difference between humans was one of species rather than variety and is seen by some as the origin of scientific racism.[8]

Morton argued against the single creation story of the Bible (monogenism) and instead supported a theory of multiple racial creations (polygenism). Morton claimed the Bible supported polygenism, and within working in a biblical framework his theory held that each race had been created separately and each was given specific, irrevocable characteristics.[9]

After inspecting three mummies from ancient Egyptian catacombs, Morton concluded that Caucasians and Negroes were already distinct three thousand years ago. Since the Bible indicated that Noah's Ark had washed up on Mount Ararat, only a thousand years ago before this, Morton claimed that Noah's sons could not possibly account for every race on earth. According to Morton's theory of polygenesis, races have been separate since the start.[9]

Morton claimed that he could define the intellectual ability of a race by the skull capacity. A large volume meant a large brain and high intellectual capacity, and a small skull indicated a small brain and decreased intellectual capacity. He was reputed to hold the largest collection of skulls, on which he based his research. He claimed that each race had a separate origin, and that a descending order of intelligence could be discerned that placed Caucasians at the pinnacle and Negroes at the lowest point, with various other race groups in between.[10] Morton had many skulls from ancient Egypt, and concluded that the ancient Egyptians were not African, but were Caucasian. His results were published in three volumes between 1839 and 1849: the Crania Americana, An Inquiry into the Distinctive Characteristics of the Aboriginal Race of America and Crania Aegyptiaca.[10] Morton's skull collection was held at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia until 1966, when it was transferred to the Penn Museum, where it is presently curated.[11]

Morton's theories were very popular in his day, and he was a highly respected physician and scientist. The anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička called Morton "the father of American physical anthropology".[12] Crispin Bates has noted that Morton's "systematic justification" for the separation of races, along with the work of Louis Agassiz, was also used by those who favoured slavery in the United States, with the Charleston Medical Journal noting at his death that "We of the South should consider him as our benefactor for aiding most materially in giving to the negro his true position as an inferior race."[10][13]

Craniology
Engraving of Morton from the frontispiece to Types of Mankind by Nott and Gliddon

Morton claimed in his Crania Americana that the Caucasians had the biggest brains, averaging 87 cubic inches (1,426 cc), Indians were in the middle with an average of 82 cubic inches (1,344 cc) and Negroes had the smallest brains with an average of 78 cubic inches (1,278 cc).[9] Morton believed that the skulls of each race were so different that a wise creator from the beginning had created each race and positioned them in separate homelands to dwell in.[14]

Morton believed that cranial capacity determined intellectual ability, and he used his craniometric evidence in conjunction with his analysis of anthropological literature then available to argue in favor of a racial hierarchy which put Caucasians on the top rung and Africans on the bottom. His skull measurements (by volume) then came to serve as "evidence" for racial stereotypes.[15] He described the Caucasian as "distinguished by the facility with which it attains the highest intellectual endowments"; Native Americans were described as "averse to cultivation, and slow in acquiring knowledge; restless, revengeful, and fond of war, and wholly destitute of maritime adventure" and the Africans he described as "joyous, flexible, and indolent; while the many nations which compose this race present a singular diversity of intellectual character, of which the far extreme is the lowest grade of humanity".[16]

Morton's followers, particularly Josiah C. Nott and George Gliddon in their monumental tribute to Morton's work, Types of Mankind (1854), carried Morton's ideas further and backed up his findings which supported the notion of polygenism – the premise that the different races were separately created by God. The publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859 changed the nature of the scholarly debate.[10]

Some of the skulls that Morton collected and measured include those of enslaved people.[17]

Allegations of bias in data collection and interpretation

In a 1978 paper[18] and later in The Mismeasure of Man (1981), Stephen Jay Gould asserted that Morton had, perhaps because of an unconscious bias, selectively reported data, manipulated sample compositions, made analytical errors, and mismeasured skulls in order to support his prejudicial views on intelligence differences between different populations. Gould's book became widely read and Morton came to be considered one of the main cases of the effects of unconscious bias in data collection, and as one of the main figures in the early history of scientific racism.

Subsequently, two separate studies of Morton's data and methods, one conducted in 1988 and the other in 2011, argued that Gould had overstated or misrepresented the case, and that Morton's measurements were essentially correct.[19] In the latter study, entitled "The Mismeasure of Science: Stephen Jay Gould versus Samuel George Morton on Skulls and Bias"[20] and authored by six anthropologists, it was concluded that the bias came from Gould, who failed to examine and remeasure the crania in order to determine Morton's level of accuracy.[21] However, this study was reviewed in an editorial in Nature, which recommended a degree of caution, stating "the critique leaves the majority of Gould's work unscathed," and noted that "because they couldn't measure all the skulls, they do not know whether the average cranial capacities that Morton reported represent his sample accurately."[22] The journal stated that Gould's opposition to racism may have biased his interpretation of Morton's data, but also noted that "Lewis and his colleagues have their own motivations. Several in the group have an association with the University of Pennsylvania, and have an interest in seeing the valuable but understudied skull collection freed from the stigma of bias and did not accept Gould's theory "that the scientific method is inevitably tainted by bias."[22]

A 2014 review of the paper by University of Pennsylvania philosophy professor Michael Weisberg, tended to support Gould's original accusations, concluding that "there is prima facie evidence of a racial bias in Morton's measurements". Weisberg concludes that although Gould did commit mistakes in his own treatment, Morton's work "remains a cautionary example of racial bias in the science of human differences".[23]

Research based on the discovery of some of Morton's original data by University of Pennsylvania anthropology doctoral student Paul Wolff Mitchell in 2018 argues that Morton was nevertheless guilty of bias, though not in data collection. Mitchell argues that Morton's interpretation of his data was arbitrary and tendentious; he investigated averages and ignored variations in skull size so large that there was significant overlap.[24] A contemporary of Morton, Friedrich Tiedemann, had collected almost identical skull data and drawn conclusions opposite to Morton's on the basis of this overlap, arguing strongly against any conception of a racial hierarchy.[25][26]

Works
  • “Observations on Cornine, (an Alkaline Principle, recently obtained from the bark of Cornus Florida, By George W. Carpenter of Philadelphia).” The Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences 11 [n. s. 2]:195–198, 1825.
  • “Description of the Fossil Shells characterizing the Atlantic Secondary Formation of New-Jersey and Delaware; including four new species.” Read on December 11, 1827 and January 1, 1828. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 6 (1): 72–73, 1829.
  • “Geological Observations on the Secondary, Tertiary, and Alluvial Formations of the Atlantic Coast of the United States of America arranged from the notes of Lardiner Vanuxem,” Read on January 8, 1828. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 6 (1): 59–71, 1829.
  • “On the analogy which exists between the Marl of New Jersey, Etc. and the Chalk formation of Europe,” Letter from S. G. Morton, MD to the Editor, dated February, 14 1832. American Journal of Science and Arts 22 (1): 90–91, 1832.
  • Illustrations of Pulmonary Consumption: Its Anatomical Characters, Causes, Symptoms and Treatment. Philadelphia: Key & Biddle, 1834.
  • Crania Americana; or, A Comparative View of the Skulls of Various Aboriginal Nations of North and South America: To which is Prefixed An Essay on the Varieties of the Human Species. Philadelphia: J. Dobson, 1839.
  • Catalogue of the Skulls of Man and the Inferior Animals in the Collection of Samuel George Morton, Philadelphia: Turner and Fisher, 1840.
  • A Memoir of William Maclure, Esq. Philadelphia: T. K. and P. G. Collins, 1841.
  • Editor for Benjamin Ellis. The Medical Formulary: Being a Collection of Prescriptions Derived from the Writings and Practice of Many of the Most Eminent Physicians in America and Europe. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1842.
  • Editor for John Makintosh. Principles of Pathology and Practice of Medicine, 4th American Ed. Philadelphia, Lindsay and Blakiston, 1844.
  • An Inquiry into the Distinctive Characteristics of the Aboriginal Race of America. Philadelphia: John Penington, 1844.
  • Catalogue of the Skulls of Man and the Inferior Animals in the Collection of Samuel George Morton, 2nd Ed. Philadelphia: F. Turner, 1843.
  • Crania Aegyptiaca; or Observations on Egyptian Ethnography Derived from Anatomy, History and the Monuments. Philadelphia: John Pennington, 1844.
  • “On a supposed new species of Hippopotamus,” Meeting of February 27, 1844. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 2 (2): 14–17, 1844.  
  • Hybridity in Animals and Plants, Considered in Reference to the Question of the Unity of the Human Species. New Haven: B.L. Hamlen, 1847.
  • An Illustrated System of Human Anatomy. Philadelphia: Grigg, Elliot and Co., 1849.
  • Catalogue of the Skulls of Man and the Inferior Animals in the Collection of Samuel George Morton, 3rd Ed. Philadelphia: Merrihew and Thompson, 1849.
  • “On the Size of the Brain in the Various Races and Families of Man.” In Types of Mankind, 8th Ed. Josiah Nott and George Gliddon, eds. Pp. 298–327. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippencott - London: Trübner and Co., 1850.
  • “Physical Type of the American Indians.” In Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. Vol. II, Pp. 315–335. Henry Schoolcraft. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, 1851.
  • “Exerpta from Morton’s Inedited Manuscripts.” In Types of Mankind. Josiah Knot and George Gliddon, eds., Pp. 298-327. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippencott - London: Trübner and Co., 1855.

See also

Notes
  1. Wood, George Bacon (1853). A Biographical Memoir of Samuel George Morton, M.D. . Philadelphia: College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
  2. Wood, George Bacon (1859). "A memoir of the Dr. Samuel George Morton". Introductory lectures and addresses on medical subjects : delivered chiefly before the medical classes of the University of Pennsylvania / by George B. Wood. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott. p. 443. OCLC 4402287. His first medical essay was on the user of cornine in intermittent fever, and was published in the Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences (xi. 195, A.D. 1825).
  3. Life of Morton at penn.museum
  4. "Extinct Philadelphia Medical Schools". Philadelphia Medical History and the University of Pennsylvania. University of Pennsylvania, University Archives and Records Center. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  5. Wood, George Bacon (1853). A Biographical Memoir of Samuel George Morton, M.D. . Philadelphia: T. K. and P. G. Collins – via Wikisource.
  6. American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
  7. "Samuel George Morton". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  8. Fredrickson, George M. (1972). The Black Image in the White Mind: The Debate on African-American Character and Destiny, 1817–1914. New York: Harper Torchbooks. p. 74.
  9. David Hurst Thomas, Skull Wars Kennewick Man, Archaeology, And The Battle For Native American Identity, 2001, pp. 38 – 41
  10. Bates, Crispin (1995). "Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: the early origins of Indian anthropometry". In Robb, Peter (ed.). The Concept of Race in South Asia. Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-19-563767-0. Retrieved 2011-11-30.
  11. https://www.penn.museum/sites/morton/collection.php
  12. Clark Spencer Larsen, A Companion to Biological Anthropology, 2010, p. 14
  13. The quote from the Charleston Medical Journal also cited by: Stephen Jay Gould (17 June 2006). The Mismeasure of Man. ISBN 978-0393314250. Retrieved 2020-06-11. and by: Emily S. Renschler and Janet Monge. "The Samuel George Morton Cranial Collection. Historical Significance and New Research". Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  14. John P. Jackson, Nadine M. Weidman, Race, racism, and science: social impact and interaction, 2005, p. 45
  15. Backhouse, Constance (2001). "The Historical Construction of Racial Identity and Implications for Reconciliation" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on January 31, 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  16. Menand, L. (2001). Morton, Agassiz, and the origins of scientific racism in the United States. Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 110-113. Even in his time, some physicians opposed the idea that there were differences in average cranial size across races. The German physician Friedrich Tiedemann, for instance, argued vigorously that previous scholars who found differences in cranial size across races were wrong in their measurements (or in some cases had too small a sample to draw inferences). Tiedemann advanced this in 1838 in his paper On the Brain of the Negro Compared with that of the European and the Ourang-Outang.
  17. Mitchell, P.W. and Michael, J.S. (2019). "Bias, Brains, and Skulls Tracing the Legacy of Scientific Racism in the Nineteenth-Century Works of Samuel George Morton and Friedrich Tiedemann" In Jackson, Christina, and Thomas, Jamie (eds.). Embodied Difference: Divergent Bodies in Public Discourse. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littefield. p. 77-98. ISBN 978-1-4985-6386-4. Retrieved 2019-07-26.
  18. Gould, S. J. (1978). "Morton's Ranking of Races by Cranial Capacity." Archived 2011-06-18 at the Wayback Machine Science 200 (May 5): 503–509.
  19. Wade, Nicholas (2011). "Scientists Measure the Accuracy of a Racism Claim." The New York Times (June 14): D4.
  20. Lewis, J., D. DeGusta, M. Meyer, J. Monge, A. Mann, and R. Holloway (2011). "The Mismeasure of Science." Public Library of Science Biology 9 (6): e1001071.
  21. Samuel Morton collection of skulls at center of controversy. June 16, 2011. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-samuel-morton-skulls-center-controversy.html
  22. Editorial (2011). "Mismeasure for mismeasure." Nature 474 (23 June): 419.
  23. Weisberg, M. (2014), Remeasuring man. Evolution & Development, 16: 166–178. doi: 10.1111/ede.12077
  24. Mitchell, P.W. (2018). "The fault in his seeds: Lost notes to the case of bias in Samuel George Morton's cranial race science." Public Library of Science Biology 16 (10): e2007008.
  25. Ars Technica "There’s new evidence confirming bias of the “father of scientific racism”
  26. Mitchell, P.W. and Michael, J.S. (2019). "Bias, Brains, and Skulls Tracing the Legacy of Scientific Racism in the Nineteenth-Century Works of Samuel George Morton and Friedrich Tiedemann" In Jackson, Christina, and Thomas, Jamie (eds.). Embodied Difference: Divergent Bodies in Public Discourse. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littefield. p. 77-98. ISBN 978-1-4985-6386-4. Retrieved 2019-07-26.
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