I'rof/nathli^in of Tasmanlan Ahorhjiiud. 



145 



\\\(\v alsti applies to tho Australian, with tlie reservation that the 

 itter is more pro^'uathic than the Tasnianian. 



TABLE V. 

 OrNATHif Indices. 



In view of the fact that Table V. only includes six Veddahs, it 

 would, I think, be bettter to exclude them from the comparison. This 

 having been done, there emerges the broad fact that the more primi- 

 tive races of mankind tend to be less orthognathic than the higher 

 races, a conclusion which the following extract from Wiedersheim 

 (23) supports : — " Tlie prognathous type of skull has been assumed 

 to be a reversion to a pithecoid condition ; but this consideration is 

 l>y no means a simple one. The cousins Sarasin have pointed out 

 that the lowest forms of human skulls, e.g., those of Veddahs, Anda- 

 man Islanders and Bushmen, are of orthognathous, or (Andaman 

 Islanders) niesognathic type. The orthognathous type may thus 

 have been attained by human beings at a very early period, and 

 subsequently lost. If this be the case (but it is doubtful), the prog- 

 nathous condition of Negroes and Melanesians, and the great projec- 

 tion of the jaw in some woolly and straight-haired races, must be a 

 secondary condition, which has been preceded by orthognathy. In 

 this case the orthognathy once more attained by Europeans mu.st be 

 regarded as a third phylogenetic phase of the evolution of the skull 

 (Sarasin)." 



A further examination of Table V., from, the standpoint of racial 

 impurity or otherwise, reveals little or nothing. The standard devia- 

 tion, which reflects to a certain extent the influence of the range of 

 variation, is found to be greatest in probably the purest race of all, 

 namely, the Tasmanian, and, excluding the Veddah, for the reason 

 already given, least in the known and admittedly impure race, the 

 modern Italian. Looked at from this standpoint, we find that, as 

 regards the standard deviation, the five races compared (Veddahs 

 excluded) may be arranged in an ascending series as follows : — 

 Modem Italian - . - - 3.54 



Andamanese . . - . 3.60 



Chinese .-♦.-- 4.03 

 Australian - - - - - 4.13 



Tasmanian ----- 4.83 



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