1849.] 221 



The structure called the " royal chamber," measured externally 10 inches in 

 length, internally 8 inches. Its heisjht from the level of the ground was 2 feet 8 

 inches. The length of the queen 4^ inches. 



Shrubs, or small trees are frequently seen growing up thiough the hills. Such 

 trees are never seen dead, consequently are not eaten by the insect. 



On leave granted, Dr. John Neill presented an abstract of apaper writ- 

 ten for the American Journal of iVIedical Sciences, entitled "Observations 

 on the Occipital and Superior Maxillary Bones of the African Cranium." 

 A peculiarity in the condyloid processof the occiput was pointed out, 

 which is not o;pnerally noticed in works on Anatomy. It consists in 

 a division of the process into two parts by a ridge or groove ; showino- 

 a tendency in the basi-occipital bone of^he foetal, or young head, to 

 be permanently retained. This peculiarity occurs oftener in the Afri- 

 can than in any other head. In this respect there is an analogy to the 

 lower orders of the vertebrata. The superior maxillary bone of the 

 African head is also defective in a ridge which is continuous with the 

 nasal process, and reaches to the anterior nasal spinal in the Caucasian 

 head. In the African, the lower edge of the anterior nares is flat, and 

 in thisrespect resembles the fcetal head, and the heads of inferior animals. 



On leave granted, Dr Morton made the following observations on 

 the capacity of the skull in the different races of man. 



Observations on the size of the Brai?! in various Races and Fmnilies of Mail. 

 By Samuel George Morton, M. D. 



I have great pleasure in submitting to the Academy the results of the internal 

 measurements of six hundred and twenty-three human crania, made with a view 

 to ascertain the relative size of the brain in various races and families of Man. 



These measurements have been made by the process invented by my friend 

 Mr. J. S. Phillips, and described in my Crania Americana, p. 253, merely sub- 

 stituting leaden shot, one-eighth of an inch in diameter, in place' of the white 

 mustard- seed originally used. I thus obtain the absolute caparitij of the craiunm, 

 or bulk of the brain, in cubic inches ; and the results are annexed in all those in- 

 stances in which I have had leisure to put this revised mode of measurement in 

 practice. I have restricted it, at least for the purpose of my inferential conclu- 

 sions, to the crania of persons of sixteen years of age and upwards, at which 

 period the brain is believed to possess the adult size. Under this age, the 

 capacity-measurernent has only been resorted to for the purpose of coUaterai 

 comparison ; nor can t avoid expressing my satisfaction at the singular accuracy 

 of this method, since a skull of an hundred cubic inches, if measured any number 

 of times with reasonable care, will not vary a single cubic inch. 



All these measurements have been made with my own hands. I at one time 

 employed a person to assist me ; but having detected some errors in his measure- 

 ments, I have been at the pains to revise all that part of the series that had not 

 been previously measured by myself. I can now, therefore, vouch for the accu- 

 racy of these multitudinous data, which I cannot but regard as a novel and im- 

 portant contribution to Ethnological science. 



I am now engaged in a memoir which will embrace in detail the conclusions 

 that result from these data; and meanwhile I submit the following tabular view 

 of the prominent facts. 



