OF NEW ENGLAND INDIANS. 7 



of the 29 supposed adult females is 1,319 cubic centimeters and of the 38 supposed adult 

 males 1,436 c.c, showing a difference of 117 c.c. in favor of the latter. The smallest skull 

 in the collection is No. 18, Table II (Peabody Mus., No. 12,350) from a shell heap on Great 

 Deer Island, Maine, which measures 1182 c.c. ; and the largest is No. 38, Table I,^ (Army 

 Medical Museum No. 1560) which reaches the enormous size of 1920 c.c. The range or 

 difference between the two extremes amounts to 738 c.c, which is less than that of the 

 Indians of the Santa Barbara Islands, California, or of the Moundbuilders of the Cumber- 

 land valley.^ Assuming, with Dr. J. Aitken Meigs, 1376 c.c. to be the average of the 

 North American Indian,^ it will be seen that the mean of the two sexes, 1377 c.c, as given 

 above, accords with it in a striking manner. This is greater than tlie Indians from the 

 Santa Barbara Islands,'' 1310 c.c, the Tennessee Moundbuilders, 1341 c.c.,^ or the Peru- 

 vians of the coast, 1230 c.c,*^ but does not equal the Eskimos of Greenland, 1392 c.c, or 

 of Alaska, 1404 c.c." Of the entire series, twenty-five are below 1350 c.c, or microceph- 

 alic, and thirteen above 1450 c.c, or macrocephalic, and thirteen are between the two, 

 or mesocephalic, to which class the collection taken as a whole also belongs.^ 



The index of breadth,^ or the relation of the greatest breadth between the parietals, to 

 the length measured through the glabella to the most prominent point of the occiput, is 

 .767 for the males, and .752 for the females; or, taking the mean of the two sexes and leav- 

 ing off the fraction, .759 for the whole collection. This brings them within the class of me- 

 saticephali, though by a vei'y narrow margin. Of the entire collection, twenty-six have an 

 index below .750, and hence may be classed as dolichocephali ; nine have an index greater 

 than .800 and are, therefore to be ranked among the brachycephali or short skulls, whilst 

 the remaining thirty-one have indices ranging between these limits and thus, of course, 

 belong to the mesaticephali. Of this last group, the index is .775. The females are, 

 however, slightly more dolichocephalic than the males, the figures being .771 for the for- 

 mer and .779 for the latter. 



^ Notwitlistaniling the very unusual size of this skull, I gin for the inequality caused by using different methods of 



have not felt at liberty to omit it fi'om the table for the fol- measurement. Be this as it may, my object in singling out 



lowing reasons : 1st, its history is pretty well known ; 2d, this particular skull, was to mark the differences rather than 



there are crania of undoubtedly aboriginal origin now in the to institute a comparison where surely none exists. 



Peabody Museum of Cambridge, j. e., one ft'om San Cleniente -Twelfth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, 1880. 



Island, California, that measures 1747 c.c, and one from a ^ Catalogue of Human Crania in the Collection of the 



mound in Tennessee that reaches 1825 c.c, that are ab- Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, p. 10. 



normally large when compared with the averages from their ^Check-list of the Army Medical Museum. Washington, 



respective localities; 3d, it is equalled, if not surpassed, by 1876. Twelfth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, pp. 



other specimens in the Peabody Museum, in the measure- 498 et seq. 



ments of length, breadth and height, respectively, though ^ Eleventh Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, 



none of them equals it when all the measurements are taken pp. 224 and 361. 1878. 



together. It is proper to add that the capacity of this skull ^Fourth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, p. 18. 



was measured with No. 8 shot, whilst in all the others 1871. 



selected peas of nearly uniform size were used. This, of ' Check-list of the Army Medical Museum, Washington) 



course, to a certain extent, vitiates the comparison, as very 1876. 



diflferent results, are obtained when different materials are ° For this classification see Prof. Wm. H. Flower, in the 



used ; but it is believed that the excess of this skull over the Osteological Catalogue of the Royal College of Surgeons, 



one next to it in point of size, No. 16, Table I (a Natick In- Part 1, Man. p. 252. London, 1879. 



dian in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy) which 8 index of breadth = breadth XI 000-f-length. 

 measures 1690 c.c, is so great as to allow a very wide mar- 



