4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



in a skull from the Loyalty Islands, in three Kanaka crania from the 

 Sandwich Islands, in the skull of one of the Khas tribe from Nepal, 

 in the skull of an ancient Roman, and in four Peruvian crania belong- 

 ing to the Quichua Indians (quoted also by Turner, 1878). 



Lucien Carr (1878) includes the following notes on ear exostoses 

 in his report on 67 crania from the stone graves in Tennessee : " Sinall 

 bony tumors are found in the outer opening of the ear in seven of 

 the brachycephalic and in two among the flattened skulls of class 

 four; but they are not present in either of the other groups. This 

 percentage, a little more than one in seven, is greater than Professor 

 Wyman found among the Peruvian crania in which it existed one 

 in 41.25, or among Europeans, among whom it is said by Dr. C. J. 

 Blake to be found in about five out of a thousand." 



In 1879, ""^ ^" article on the " Exostoses within the External Audi- 

 tory Meatus ", William Turner reports ear exostoses in a deformed 

 skull from Peru, and also in one of a flat-head Chinook Indian. Seven- 

 teen other artificially deformed crania from North and South America 

 were free of exostoses, though several presented a greater or lesser 

 narrowing of the auditory canal. " There would thus appear to be 

 a tendency on the part of the aboriginal inhabitants of the American 

 continent to possess modifications in the configuration of the external 

 auditory passage." 



In the same year (1879) Flower, in his well-known " Catalogue ", 

 notes ear exostoses in 20 crania, as follows : of 12 Guanche, exostoses 

 in I ; of 44 Chatham Islanders, in 4; of ii " flat-heads " of Northwest 

 American coast, in i ; of 3 from Tennessee mounds, in 2; of 147 

 from Peru, in 9; of 107 Australians, in i ; of 20 Melanesians, in 2. 

 There is no discussion. 



An important account of ear exostoses in North American crania is 

 that of Blake (1880). He reexamined for this abnormality the Indian 

 crania in the Peabody Museum of Harvard University and found the 

 growths in 36 of 195 skulls (a large majority with fronto-occipital 

 compression) from the old mounds and stone graves of Tennessee 

 (18.5 percent), and in 5 out of 108 (undeformed) Indian crania of 

 California (4.6 percent). The exostoses "occurred in both camals in 

 12 out of 36 crania, and of the remainder in the right canal in 9, in the 

 left canal in 15: Of all the exostoses detected, 54 in number (counting 

 the triple exostosis found, as one), 42 occurred on the posterior and 12 

 on the anterior wall of the canal. Making the division into * rounded ' 

 and ' flattened ' to distinguish the two forms principally assumed by 

 these growths, 12 belonged to the former and 42 to the latter class." 

 In discussing the etiology of these formations Blake reaches no definite 



