404 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 



tale s'ctend pen en arriere." Blanchard informs us that this character is ex- 

 hibited in many of the specimens of this race, contained in the anthropo- 

 logical collection of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris. In all these 

 specimens he found the posterior part of the head a little less elongated than 

 in the inhabitants of the Phillipine Islands.* 



In a Japanese skull (668) the hind-head is rounded; in two Loo-choo crania 

 (672, 673) it is shelving. ' 4 



In two Burmese crania, (661, 667) the occiput is round and moderately full. 

 The occipital region of a Siamese skull, from Bangkok (123) is broad and flat, 

 and slightly resembles that of the Malay head. 



Some of the Malar crania, (41, 1186, 1316, and 1525,) have elongate or 

 shelving occiputs; in others, (46, 47, 201, 433, 543, 1338,- 1339, 1341, 1523,) 

 the occipital region is more or less flatly round ; and in others still, (424, 

 425, 428, 429, 430, 459, 49-5, 544, 546, and 1337,) it is more or less globular. 

 In Nos. 545 and 1340, the occiput is compressed behind, and somewhat be- 

 neath, so as to form a sort of inclined plane, sloping downwards and forwards, 

 to the foramen magnum. 



Nine Burmese and Malay crania in the Chatham collection have the occiput 

 broad and well rounded ; and the space for the downward development of the 

 cerebellum in the occipital region extensive. In one Burmese skull, the pos- 

 terior part of the head is large, and the occiput straight. In a Japanese 

 skull the occiput is broad, fiat, and almost perpendicular. This is true also, 

 of some of the Malay skulls, and of two Burmese described by Dr. Williamson, 

 in the appendix to his catalogue. 



Finlayson, in describing the tribes of the Trans-Gangetic, or Indo-Chinese 

 Peninsula, says that "the occipital foramen is often placed so far back that 

 from the crown to the nape of the neck is nearly a straight line."t According 

 to Dr. Ruschenberger, the occipital portion of the Siamese skull is nearly 

 vertical, and compared with the anterior and sincipital division, very small. t 

 In the inhabitants of Cochin-China or Annam, according to Morton, the 

 occipital portion of the head is more elongated than in the Siamese. 



Only one (1551) of the Lapland skulls in the Academy's collection has the 

 shelving occiput ; all the others, (1250, 1257, and 1552,) possess a broad and 

 flatly rounded occipital region. 



All the Eskimo crania in the collection have narrow, elongate, or ovoidal 

 occiputs. In an Eskimo skull at Chatham, the "occiput is narrow and 

 prominent." 



In the Tchuktchi crania brought from Behring's Straits by my friend, E. M. 

 Kern, Esq., the occiput is prominent and shelving. The skull of an Aleutian, 

 from Unalaschka, contained in the Rijk's Museum of Natural History, at 

 Leyden, and figured and described by Prof. Van der Heaven, has a prominent 

 ociput. 



The occipital region of a Kamskatkan cranial cast (725) is full and pro- 

 tuberant. In the skull of a Northern Reindeer Tungus, figured by Blumen- 

 bach, in Table xvi. of his Decades Craniorum, "the occiput is remarkably 

 prominent, so that the distance between the external occipital protuberance 

 and the superior incisors is equal to nine inches." The Kalmuck (1553) and 

 Burat skulls (1355) have globular occiputs. 



The occipital region of the skull of an Icelander (125) is full, protuberant, 

 and shelving. 



Voyage ail Pole Sud et dans l'Oceanie.&c. Anthropologie. Par Emile Blanchard 

 Paris, 1854. 



t Embassy to Siaui and Hue, p. 230. 



J A voyage Round the World; including an Embassy to Muscat and Siam. By W. 

 S. W. Ruschenberger, M. D. Philada., 1838, p. 209. 



Beschrijving van Drie Merkwaardige Menschelijke Schedels uit het Rijk's Museum 

 van Natuurlijke Histore te Leiden. Door J. Van der Hoeven. 



[Sept- 



