126 [November, 1841. 



pipe clay and comminuted shells mixed ; and no one of these reposi- 

 tories is without cooking utensils. In one of the graves was found 

 a complete skull, and an os femoris, but most of the other bones 

 were broken in hastily removing them. This is said to be the lar- 

 gest skeleton ever found at any of these burying grounds. It has 

 the cranium very flat and broad, with very projecting front teeth, 

 and appears to have pertained to an individual not over twelve or 

 fourteen years of age." 



After reading Mr. M'Call's letter, Dr. Morton exhibited the 

 bones which accompanied it, and remarked that the stage of devel- 

 opment of the teeth indicated a very juvenile subject. For example, 

 many of the deciduous or first teeth yet remained in both jaws ; 

 while the only teeth of the permanent set which had protruded, were 

 the first molars and the incisors, which, as every anatomist knows, 

 make their appearance at about seven years of age. Of the other 

 permanent teeth, some had no part formed but the crown, and all 

 were completely embraced within the maxillary bones. The pre- 

 sence of the new incisors, isolated from the cuspidati which had not 

 appeared, obviously gave rise to Mr. M'Call's remark respecting 

 the very " projecting front teeth," but which, however, are perfectly 

 natural in position and proportion. The cranial bones are thin, and 

 readily separable at the sutures ; nor does the flat and broad confi- 

 guration of the cranium differ from what is common to the aborigi- 

 nal American race. The long bones have their extremities sepa- 

 rated by ephiphyses ; and every fact observed in these remains is 

 strictly characteristic of early childhood ; or about the seventh 

 year of life. Even the recumbent or sitting posture in which 

 they are found, has been observed in the dead bodies of the 

 American nations from Cape Horn to Canada ; and the utensils 

 found with them, are the same in form and composition with 

 those exhumed from the graves of the common Indians. 



Dr. Morton concluded by remarking that these remains were to 

 him an additional and convincing proof of what he had never doubt- 

 ed viz. that the so called Pigmies of the western country, were 

 merely children, who, for reasons not readily explained, but which 

 actuate some religious communities of our own time, were buried 

 apart from the adult people of their tribe. 



