APPENDIX. 



ON THE CRANIA AND THE LANGUAGES OF THE RACES OF 

 MAN IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. 



A FEW years ago it was thought that the study of Crania offered the only 

 sure basis of a classification of man. Immense collections have been formed ; 

 they have been measured, described, and figured ; and now the opinion is 

 beginning to gain ground, that for this special purpose they are of very little 

 value. Professor Huxley has boldly stated his views to this effect ; and in a 

 proposed new classification of mankind has given scarcely any weight to char- 

 acters derived from the cranium. It is certain, too, that though Cranioscopy 

 has been assiduously studied for many years, it has produced no results at all 

 comparable with the labor and research bestowed upon it. No approach to 

 a theoiy of the excessive variations of the cranium has been put forth, and 

 no intelligible classification of races has been founded upon it. 



Dr. Joseph Barnard Davis, who has assiduously collected human crania 

 for many years, has just published a remarkable work, entitled " Thesaurus 

 Craniorum." This is a catalogue of his collection (by far the most exten- 

 sive in existence), classified according to countries and races, indicating the 

 derivation and any special characteristics of each specimen ; and by way of 

 description, an elaborate series of measurements, nineteen in number when 

 complete, by which accurate comparisons can be made, and the limits of va- 

 riation determined. 



This interesting and valuable work offered me the means of determining 

 for myself, whether the forms and dimensions of the crania of the eastern 

 races, would in any waj' support or refute my classification of them. For 

 the purposes of comparispn, the whole series of nineteen measurements would 

 have been far too cumbersome. I therefore selected three, which seem to me 

 well adapted to test the capabilities of Cranioscopy for the purpose in view. 

 These are : — 1. The capacity of the cranium. 2. The proportion of the 

 width to the length taken as 1 '00. 3. The proportion of the height to the 

 length taken as I'OO. These dimensions are given by Dr. Davis in almost 

 every case, and have furnished me with ample materials. I first took the 

 '■'means " of groups of crania of the same race from distinct localities, as 

 given by Dr. Davis himself, and thought I could detect differences charac- 

 teristic of the gi'eat divisions of the Malayans and Papuans ; but some anom- 

 alies induced me to look at the amount of individual variation, and this was 

 so enormous that I became at once convinced, that even this large collection 



