8 CARR ON THE CRANIA 



As was to have been expected in a collection, composed as this is of the crania of differ- 

 ent tribes, the range is very wide, extending from .859, No. 26, Table I, (Boston Society for 

 Medical Improvement, No. 1376) to .663, No. 24, Table IT (Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia, No. 1040). This latter specimen is catalogued as " a woman aetat 70, with 

 a singularly elongated head." Upon examination, the sagittal, coronal and lamboidal 

 sutures were found to be closed. This may have been due to the age of the woman, and 

 hence the peculiarly elongated form of the cranium cannot be ascribed to the premature 

 closing of the sagittal suture, though that, of course, is possible. However, there are in 

 this collection other perfectly normal crania that approach it too closely in this respect, 

 e.g. No. 19, Table II, and No. 12, Table I (Peabody Museum, Nos. 660 and 10,249), to jus- 

 tify us in rejecting it as an aberrant form. 



The index of height for the males is .761, for the females .758, and for the two sexes 

 taken together .759. Compared with the indices of breadth, as is done in order to get at 

 the shape of the head, we find that among the former the height is less than the 

 breadth, whilst among the latter it is greater. The difference, however, is very small, 

 amounting in either case to only 1 m.m. actual measurement. Taking the collections as 

 a whole, and the indices of breadth and height are found to be equal, but if the skulls be 

 considered singly, twenty-seven of them have the index of breadth greater than that of 

 height, whilst in twenty-nine the reverse is the case. 



Coming now to the facial measurements, and beginning with the alveolar index or the 

 relation of the basi-nasal length to the basi-alveolar, estimating the former at 100, and it 

 will be found to be in the males .96, and in the females .99.^ Of the entire collection, 

 twenty-six are orthognathous, twenty mesognathous, and only three that can be called 

 strictly prognathous. Taking the two sexes together, the index of the whole is .975, or 

 orthognathic with a strong tendency to mesognathism. 



The nasal index of the males is .49, and of tlie females .51, which brings them both, 

 when considered either separately or together, among the mesorhine. There are, how- 

 ever, in the series fourteen that have an index below .48 or are leptorhine, twelve with 

 an index above .53 or platyrhine, and thirty that are within these limits or mesorhine. 



The orbital index is .88 for the males and .91 for the females, or .895 for the two. This 

 classes them with the megaseme, though just within the limits.^ As is usually the case, 

 the orbit among the females is proportionately more open than among the males. 



Summing up the result of these measurements, the average skull of this series is found 

 to be of medium caj^acity and mesaticephalic, with a decided tendency towards dolicho- 

 cephalism. It is orthognathic, mesorhine and megaseme, but by very small margins. 

 These measurements and the technical description based upon them are beheved to be cor- 

 rect ; in fact they agree so closely with those made by Dr. Wilson upon a number (30) of 

 skulls ^ of the same people that there can be little doubt as to their accuracy ; and yet 

 after all it must be admitted that, in point of fact, so far as this collection is concerned, the 



iProf. Flower, of the Royal College of Surgeons, prefers 1.030 as prognathous. In the first of these classes are to be 



this method of estimating the forward projection of the face found most Europeans, and in the last most negroes, 



for the reason that it is easy of application, " and if in some ^Below .840 is microseme; above .890 is megaseme; 



cases not strictly accurate, in the large majority it certainly between the two is mesoseme. 



gives the desired information." He classifies all below .980 ' Prehistoric Man, p. 186. London, 1876. 

 as orthognathous. From .980 to 1.030 mesognathous. Above 



