178 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxxii. 



This paper deals with the absolute and the relative lengths of the 

 cerebral and cerebellar fossae in man and a series of anhnals, and with 

 the relation of the length of the different fossas to the form of the skull. 



The detailed objects of the study were the elucidation of how the 

 several fossse, or rather the parts of the brain which they limit, differ 

 in the various races of mankind, in the two sexes, between the young 

 and adults, between man and other mammals, and, finally, in dolicho- 

 and brachycephalv- 



A similar study of the cranial fosste has not, so far as the writer 

 was able to learn, been as yet attempted. General remarks on the 

 size of the fosste will be found in Cuvier;" Morton'' measured the 

 capacity of the ""anterior" and "posterior" chamber of the skull, 

 Huschke'" and Aeby '' the capacity of the frontal and occipital verte- 

 brae, and Giuffrida-Ruggeri *" that of the cerebellar fossa; finally a 

 number of observers-^ have measured directly the several lobes of the 

 brain; but linear measurements of the fossfe are wanting. Yet these 

 cavities offer stable boundaries for measurements that are less compli- 

 cated and less subject to the results of variations in the bones themselves 

 than Huschke's or Aebj^'s capacities. 



One of the main reasons why the cranial fossae have not received 

 more attention in anthropometry was undoubtedly the scarcity of 

 suitable material, i. e., cut skulls, and it was the writer's opportunity 

 in this particular that was the direct cause of his undertaking the 

 measurements. From 1897 to 1903 the writer enjoyed the privilege 

 of examining the great osteological collection in Prof. George S. 

 Huntington's Morphological Museum in the College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons,^ New York, and to this were added, every 3^ear, a fair 

 number of identified skulls, from which the calvarium had been 

 removed for the purpose of brain demonsti'ation. This provided an 

 ample supply of skulls, already cut, of whites and some of negroes, 

 to which, since 1903, it has been possible to add necessary series of 

 Indian, fetal, and animal crania from the collections of the U. S. 

 National Museum. The writer is particularly indebted to the Division 

 of Mammals of the National Museum for the comparative material. 



«Leyons d'anatoniie comparee, 2 ed.,. Paris, 1837, p. 288. 



bS. G. Morton, Crania Americana, Pliiladelphia, 1839, pp. 253-256. 



<■£. Huschke, Schaedel, Hirn und Seele, Jena, 1854, p. 46. (Refers also to C. G. 

 Carus, who compared the three vertebrpe — frontal, parietal, and occipital — from 

 measurements obtained between points on the exterior surface of the bones. ) 



'' C. Aeby, Beitriige zur Kenntniss der Mikrocephalie, Arch. f. Anthrop., VII, 

 1874-1875, p. 15. 



f V. Giuffrida-Ruggeri, La capacita della fossa cerebellare, Sperimentale, XXV 

 1899, pp. 131-135; also in Arch. ital. de bid., XXXII, 1899, p. 455. 



/See especially D. J. Cunningham. Address to the Anthropological Section, Brit- 

 ish Association, Glasgow, 1901, pp. 1-13; also in the Proc. British Association of 1901. 



!7The medical dejiartment of the Columbia University. 



