Physician Samuel George Morton, founder of physical anthropology in the U.S., actively solicits skulls and appropriation of human specimens in preparation for his publication of Crania Americana in 1839, in which he compares crania sizes of American Indians (147 individuals) to Caucasians and uses his “findings” to argue intellectual inferiority of American Indians. This falsely supports beliefs found in the pseudoscience of nephrology that is making headway during this period in anthropology. In Crania Americana, Morton states that his studies of skulls show that Native Americans have a “deficiency of higher mental powers” and an “inaptitude for civilization,” making it impossible for Natives and Europeans to interact as equals. The popularity of this pseudoscience leads to dehumanizing Natives even further and sets the cultural stage for mass genocide.