MEMOIRS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



203 



over 10 per ceut are tritubercular, 18 or over 4SA per cent have tubercles 3i, and the remaining 

 or slightly over 35 per cent have four tubercles well developed. 



From a careful consideration of the facts here set forth it would seem that the nearest allies 

 of the ancient inhabitants of the Salado Valley, if we judge from the prevalence of dental decay, 

 are the Peruvians ii] ion the one hand, in whom caries was almost as frequent, and the Monud 

 Builders of the Mississippi Valley on the other, who also suffered to a considerable extent from 

 tooth-decay. Whether we are to accept the dental condition described as indicating al linity or 

 whether they are to be regarded as the effects of climate, food, and general habits of life we 

 are not prepared to say ; but it is more than probable that they have a certain value as express 

 ing race affinity. 



The facts relating to the structure of the teeth themselves are important, and we are disposed 

 to attach more weight to them, so far at least as evidence of affinity is concerned, than to the 

 other two classes combined. The high percentage of the tritubercular second molar in the 

 Alaskan Indians, 07 per cent, is significant and betokens either much commingling or a very near 

 relationship with Eskimos. In a like manner the percentage of 02 among the Californians is sug 

 gestive of near affinity with the inhabitants of Alaska. The Mound Builders, Salado Valley 

 people, and Peruvians on the other hand are very closely related in this respect, as is indicated by 

 the percentages 40, 39, and 30, while the Sioux stand considerably apart from the rest with a per 

 centage of only 1C. 



TABLE 14. Tuberculation among different American peoples. 



27. THE HY011) BONE. 

 [By JACOB L. WOBTMAN, M. !&amp;gt;., Anatomist of the Army Medical Museum.] 



The following study of the human hyoid arch has been undertaken with a view to the deter 

 mination of the more exact value of this series of bones in matters of anthropological research. The 

 subject has received so little attention at the hands of anatomists, especially from this particular 

 standpoint, that there is little or no literature upon it, and we are as yet in comparative igno 

 rance regarding the conditions and characteristics of this chain of bones, even in the best anatom 

 ically known races of mankind. 



The history of this undertaking dates from the author s connection with the Hemenway South 

 western Archaeological Expedition to the valley of the Salado, Arizona, in 1887, whither he was 

 sent by the United States Army Medical M iiscnm to obtain a full series of skeletons of the ancient 

 dwellers of this region. While engaged in the collection of this material it was noticed that the 

 body or middle piece of the hyoid bone was almost always free, and that the separate pieces, of 

 which the hyoid arch is made up, seldom united into a single bone, even in the most aged indi 

 viduals. The hyoid, as the writer had been accustomed to see it in skeletons of whites and 

 negroes, consisted usually of a single I -shaped bone, especially if the individual had passed the 

 middle point of lite; and upon consulting a few standard text-books on human anatomy which had 

 been taken into the field for ready reference it was found that this was regarded as the usual or 

 normal condition. 



(t. The attention of Dr. Herman ten Kate, the anthropologist of the expedition, was called to 

 the subject, and together we- took accurate note of the probable ages, conditions of bone disease, 

 ete.,of all the individuals whose hyoids were secured. In all there were obtained some 07 speci- 



