CORBESP ONDENCE. 



409 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



A NOTE ON INDIAN CRANIOLOGT. 

 Messrs. Editors: 



WILL you kindly allow me a few lines 

 of your valuable space in the corre- 

 spondence column of the " Monthly " lor the 

 purpose of correcting an error which you 

 have made in noticing my memoir on " A 

 Navajo Skull," on page 279 of the Decem- 

 ber (1886) issue of your journal, as well as 

 to make a few comments thereon ? 



You have ascribed the authorship of my 

 monograph on the Navajo skull to no less 

 an eminent biologist and anthropologist than 

 Sir William Turner, F. K. S., and, as much as 

 I feel honored by your oversight, it had bet- 

 ter perhaps be corrected to stand otherwise. 

 Dr. Turner, indeed, is the author of the valu- 

 able " Additional Note on the Navajo Skull," 

 which you properly attribute to him. It sup- 

 plements my memoir and adds thereto in- 

 formation which, owing to my far removal 

 from the literature of such subjects, I could 

 not supply. Dr. Turner kindly rounded off 

 my work for me, and both papers appeared 

 together in the " Journal of Anatomy." He 

 subsequently sent me a few " reprints " of 

 his note, and I sent you a copy, so that you 

 would have the case complete before you. 



The only point that you call attention to 

 in your December notice of the memoir in 

 question is, that it relates " to the examina- 

 tion of the skull of a Navajo Indian of about 

 forty years of age, who came to his death 

 by a gunshot-wound of the head." As true 

 as this undoubtedly is, and as common as 

 such specimens are (dead from such a cause !) 

 on the plains of New Mexico, I must believe 

 you have quite overlooked the two impor- 

 tant points I endeavored to bring out in the 

 paper. The minor point which I invite at- 

 tention to is, that the specimen exhibits a 

 wonderfully interesting example of that rare 

 injury, the result of certain gunshot-wounds 

 known to surgeons as "fracture by contre- 

 coup." 



But the main object of the memoir is 

 widely removed from this and completely 

 ignored by yourselves. From the data fur- 

 nished by the Otis "Catalogue of Crania," 

 in the Army Medical Museum, I was enabled 

 to present, for the average male Navajo's 

 skull, the cranial capacity, the facial angle, 

 the length, the zygomatic diameter, etc. ; 

 and I further tabulated this information in 

 such a way that it became presentable for 

 comparison. I then carefully compared the 

 skull before me with it, and pointed out how 

 it diverged from the average measurements 

 as given in the previous data. The plate il- 



lustrates the skull seen from the four prin- 

 cipal views, and I take this occasion to thank 

 my engravers for the exceedingly handsome 

 lithograph they succeeded in obtaining from 

 my original drawings. The "Journal of 

 Anatomy " has kindly published for me since 

 a similar paper (illustrated), devoted to a 

 like comparative examination of the leading 

 characteristics of the skull among Navajo 

 children. 



It stands to reason that to devote a hand- 

 some plate and the valuable space in the 

 " Journal of Anatomy " simply to the exam- 

 ination of a single Indian skull, however 

 meritorious it might be made, would hardly 

 be tolerated ; whereas the comparative ex- 

 amination of the data brought out through 

 a study of the characteristics of the differ- 

 ent tribes of our North American Indians i3 

 a subject which I deem to be one of no lit- 

 tle importance. R. W. Shcfeldt. 



FOET WlNGATE, NEW MEXICO, ( 



November 27, lbS6. ) 



[The confusion of authorship to which 

 attention is called in the above letter, is 

 the result of the substitution of a period 

 where there should have been a comma, 

 after the word " same." Punctuated as it 

 was intended, the list of pamphlets in the 

 heading of the notice will read as belong- 

 ing primarily to Dr. Shufeldt, as it should 

 read. The rest of the author's criticism is 

 directed to the fact that we omitted to 

 mention the technical bearings of his ob- 

 servations. Technical details are not within 

 the scope of the " Monthly," and the dis- 

 cussion of them would be appreciated by 

 but a small proportion of its readers. — 

 Editor.] 



BEETLES AS A NUISANCE. 

 Messrs. Editors : 



That many insects have decided odors 

 of their own is known to all who have ever 

 taken the slightest interest in that class of 

 the animal kingdom. Some of them are 

 well known to others, even, who take no 

 such interest — to wit, that of the bed-bug 

 (Cimex lectnlarius). Many have a pleasant, 

 musky smell, and others a very intense, dis- 

 agreeable, or disgusting odor. Among the 

 latter is one of the largest of the American 

 Coleoptera — the Di/nastex titi/us of entomolo- 

 gists. The insect is two inches or more in 

 length, an inch wide, and stout in propor- 

 tion, of a pale-greenish color, with black 

 spots. In the male the thorax is furnished 

 with a long horn, and with two smaller horns 



