ON COMPOSITE PHOTOGRAPHY AS APPLIED TO CRANlOLOCrY. 107 



boues of the face with the rehitions which they bear to those of the calvarium, give more valuable 

 race indications than do the calvaiia alone. While something has been done iu the study of the 

 internal eonlij;nration of the cranial c:ivity, and more esi)ecial]y of the various fossae and projec- 

 tions at its base, with reference to their differences in various races, this field of inciuiry is as yet 

 coMijiaratively unworked. It seems very desirable to follow out this special line of investigation 

 in connection with the large and valuable collection of crania of American races which now exists 

 in the Army Medical Jluseum and in the National MnseuTn. To do this, however, it is necessary 

 that sections should be made of the skulls, and before making such sections it is desirable that all 

 measurements and especially the measurements of cubic capacity of these crania, should be made 

 according to the best and most approved methods, and the results carefully recorded. 



From the results of some preliminary experiments upon the methodsmost iu use for measuring 

 the cubic capacity of crania, 1 became much dissatisfied with their accuracy, and accordingly 

 requested Dr. Washington Matthews, my assistant at the Museum, to undertake a series of exper- 

 iments for the purpose of obtaining, if possible, some more accur.ate aud reliable method of ascer- 

 taining the cubic capacity. I think that he has succeeded, to a very great extent, iu devising a 

 perl'ected method which accomplishes this result, and I have the honor to present to the Academy, 

 by jtermission of the Surgeon-General, a full report, prepared by Dr. Matthews at my request, 

 embodying the results of his observations and experiments. 



Surgeon General's Office, Army Medical Museum, 



Washmgton, D. C, April 14, 1835. 



Sir: I have the honor to report, as directed, ou the experiments which have recently been 

 made iu the Army Medical Museum to test the practicability of finding the cubic capacity of the 

 cranial cavity by means of water. I will review briefly the general reasons which led us to perform 

 these experiments. 



The labors of anthropologists have been largely directed to perfecting methods iu which solid 

 particles are used, but the laws regulating the fall and subsidence of granular substances are 

 imperfectly understood and every change of condition and manipulation produces a change in the 

 space occupied by them. True, Broca has formulated certain laws which govern the flow, distri- 

 bution, and subsidence of solid particles, or, as Dr. Topinard calls them, granular bodies. But 

 these laws are of limited application, " all bodies do not obey them with equal regularity," and, 

 notwithstanding the accurate rules he lay.? down to govern our procedures in handling these bodies, 

 it seems almost impossible for any two persons, by merely reading his instructions to arrive at the 

 same results ; for Dr. Paul Topinard, the famous disciple of Broca, in his latest great work, says : 

 " Published documents on the capacity of the skull can only be used with extreme caution. As a 

 general rule only the results obtained by the same hand or by the immediate disciples of the same 

 authority should be compared."* The laws of granulistic physics have been but recently studied, 

 have been studied by few men, and are still imperfectly known. This is not the case with hydro- 

 statics and hydraulics ; there are no sciences more widely or well understood, none which have 

 louger formed a subject for study to our race. If, therefore, water could be used as a medium for 

 cubing skulls, the perfect knowledge we possess of the laws which govern its motions would be of 

 of vast advantage to us. 



This is no new idea. A careful search, made in all the papers ou the subject that we could 

 obtain, showed that experiments had been made iu this direction but without satisfactory results. 

 Skulls had been rendered waterproof but at such a great expense of time and labor that when the 

 best results were obtained, the skulls were available only for standards, by means of which to 

 study or regulate measurements by other methods. As the conclusions of those who had pre- 

 viously experimented with water are epitomized by Dr. Topinard in his work already referred to, 

 I cannot do better than quote his words, which are as follows:, "The most simple and most direct 

 procedure is that of water. All the exterior orifices except the occipital foramen are closed with 

 wax, the cavity is filled with water, and to do it well, with distilled water at 4 degrees if the abso- 

 lute weight is to be determined, aud at 14 degrees temperature, at which measuring glasses are 



* El^meuts d'Antliropologie G^n^rale par le Dr. Paul TopiD.ard. Paris, 1855, p. 609. 



