Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Race, Comparative Anatomy, Human Species, Controversy

    Discusses a meeting of the Ethnological Society where a Mr Craufurd (John Crawfurd) criticised Richard Owen for confusing the skull of an African with that of 'a Scotch sargeant', a mistake showing the fallacy of distinguishing races of men by their skulls. Punch thinks the skull of the Scottish sergeant came to be confused in this way because it 'had probably been marked as the Skull of Blackie', a pun on the common Scottish surname.