228 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OF 



the crania from Pisco, except three Nos. 445, 1048 and 1445 which are 

 dolichocephali ; and four Nos. 1061, 1326, 1369 and 1423 which are meso- 

 cephali and all referrible to the arched form. Another series of Peruvian crania, 

 collected. at Paracas Bay by Dr. Turner, (Nos. 1298, 1273,1274, 1275, 1303, 

 1304, 1305, 1025 and 1026, none of which are recorded in my printed Cata- 

 logue), belong likewise to the Mesocephali and to the phoxocephalic group of 

 the arched form or type. All the skulls from Santa are brachycephalic, as are 

 also all from Lima, except No. 231, which is a long-head, and No. 68, which is 

 a broadly oval mesocephalus. No. 451 is alsomesocephalic and arched. Nos. 

 1518, from Payta, 1046 from Guamay, 447, 448 and 233 from Callao are 

 brachycephalic. 



From the above statements it will be seen that among the Peruvian crania in 

 the Academy's collection the Brachycephali are greatly in numerical excess 

 over the long and middling long-heads. As regards their type or ethnic form 

 they may all be placed in the kubicephalic or square-headed group. 



As a summary of the more prominent facts recorded in the preceding pages, 

 and in order to exhibit as distinctly as possible the leading differential charac- 

 ters of the American Indian crania contained in the museum of the Academy, 

 I have constructed the following tables, and attempted therein to classify these 

 crania according to their length as compared with their heighth and breadth, 

 and according to their general ethnic forms or types. Grouping them in this 

 manner is essentially preliminary to comparing them with corref ponding groups 

 of skulls of the old world. Such a comparison I purpose to institute in a future 

 monograph to be devoted to the consideration of the large collection of 

 Esquimau skulls referred to above. 



In the first fable the American races represented in the collection are 

 grouped in accordance, for the most part, with the philological arrangement 

 or classification of Latham, while their crania are arranged in dolichocephalic 

 mesocephalic and brachycephalic classes. In the second table these skulls are 

 classified with especial reference to the more prominent of the ethnic or typical 

 forms exhibited by the entire series. This classification must not be regarded, 

 however, as rigidly accurate. It is provisional only, as all such classifications 

 must necessarily be, and subject, therefore, to future revision. Large a3 is the 

 collection of American skulls now under consideration, it is, nevertheless, ex- 

 ceedingly defective. With the exception of the Peruvians and, next to these, the 

 Seminoles and Esquimaux, the specimens representing the different tribes are 

 but few in number, and of the identity of some of these I am not yet perfectly satis- 

 fied ; moreover there are many well-known tribes and races of which the collec- 

 tion contains not a single cranial specimen. Though the collection is not 

 sufficiently diversified to exhibit all the probable cranial forms of the aborigi- 

 nal Americans, it is ample enough to show that among these people there are 

 long, short and intermediate heads divisible into pyramidal, oval, cylindrical, 

 arched, wedge-shaped, flat, globular, cubical, prognathic and other forms, all 

 as different from each other as are the distinct types of the old world. In as- 

 signing the skulls to these typical groups or classes I have experienced the 

 usual difficulty in locating the transitionary or aberrant forms, which are 

 always, in large collections, more or less numerous, and which often effectually 

 obliterate all sharply-draw lines of demarcation. Future examinations and 

 comparison may cause these transitionary specimens to be transferred from, 

 groups in which I have at present placed them to others ; but this transposition 

 though it may ultimately lead to the establishment of other types, can in no case 

 diminish the stability of those which I have just indicated. These groups, by 

 means of the intermediate forms, graduate into or blend with each other, and 

 we are thus admonished here, as in other departments of natural history, of 

 nature's eternal enigma of a certain undefinable, serial unity pervading and 

 co ordinating an endless diversity of forms. 



[May, 



