This was the problem with all of [Samuel George] Morton's results: because his collection had been gathered haphazardly, through serendipitous meeting and social opportunities, some sample groups were big while others were small, with just one or two skulls; some had more females, others had more children. There was no consistency in his data, or for that matter, in any craniologist's data, because the nature of the material made 'systematic collecting' practically impossible. Representative samples were the stuff of craniologists' dreams, but in reality they had to drawn conclusions from the odd assortments of people's heads that they had to hand.
- Frances Larson, Severed, p.199
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