IN RELATION TO THE FORM OF THE HUMAN SKULL. 263 



D. — Africa. 



All the people of this continent are dolichocephalic. This fact, to 

 which I have heretofore had occasion to draw attention at different 

 times, and which I do not know to have been contradicted by any- 

 one, is altogether peculiar to this portion of the world. Europe, 

 Asia, the lands of the South Sea, America, comprise populations be- 

 longing to the two forms of head. In Europe, and still more in Asia, 

 the brachycephalse much exceed in point of numbers; in the isles of 

 the South Sea the two forms are nearly balanced, I think, as to num- 

 bers, but the brachycephalas have the moral preponderance. On 

 the other hand, the brachycephalic populations are, to all appearance, 

 completely unrepresented in Africa. The museum of the Carolinska 

 Institute possesses an important collection of African skulls, of North 

 Africans. Abyssinians, Copts, Berbers, and Guanches. All present 

 the same form of the upper half of the skull, being large, capacious, 

 oval, resembling much those of the Arabs. The Abyssinian skulls, 

 which we owe to the liberality of our countryman, M. Behm, and the 

 Copts, are slightly prognathic. The Guanches, of which we have 

 four, all belonged to individuals of advanced age, who had lost their 

 teeth; their alveolar processes having consequently become rudimen- 

 tary, their prognathism is but slightly perceptible. 



In all these skulls, whether of Abyssinians or Egyptians and Gu- 

 anches, the vault of the skull is depressed in an arch elongated 

 towards the occipital protuberance, which is a little compressed at 

 the sides; the parietal tuberosities are little prominent. We may 

 regard this form of skull as prevailing on the coasts and .the flat 

 country of northern Africa. It is again found on the other side of 

 the Atlantic, in the Carib islands and in certain of the eastern parts 

 of the American continent. The museum possesses, for the south of 

 Africa, a considerable number of skulls pertaining to divers of the 

 Caffre tribes. They much resemble negro skulls. Some are a little 

 larger than a majority of these last, but the greater part have jaws 

 and teeth horribly prominent. One among them, from the interior 

 of the country near Port Natal, is remarkable for its diminutiveness, 

 for the complete absence of all trace of parietal protuberance, and for 

 an occiput nearly pointed. Our museum contains, also, the entire 

 skeleton of a Hottentot, but neither in this nor in the figures of Hot- 

 tentots and Bosjessmans left us by Blumenbach and Sandifort can I 

 discover any important difference from the heads of negroes in gene- 



extremely probable that the remains found in this tomb had pertained to some hostile race 

 of the Malayan branch. He maintains, on the contrary, that the Papuans are dolichoce- 

 phalic, although they deviate in some respects from the indigenes of the interior (Alfou- 

 rous) as regards the form of the skull. In brief, he expresses himself on the subject iu the 

 following manner: "Cranium Alfurorum aliquorum sii/iilitudinem habet cam cranio 1'apHarurn, 

 nam ad dolickocephala etiam perlihet; est veto amjilius et potissimum altitudine el latitudine praxedit." 

 Loc. cit., p. 11. 



The same observations might be made with regard to other skulls obtained under anala- 

 gous conditions. With a view to decide the question, it were to be wished that skilful 

 naturalists who hereafter visit the country of the Papuans would examine the form of the 

 skull of living individuals. — Note of the Author. 



