36 A SUGGESTION FOR ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK 



Dr. Abbott's discoveries in the gravel pits of Trenton, N. J., and 

 the image of Nampa, Idaho, as well as the skull of Lansing, 

 seem to bring strong, if not decisive, evidence to bear on the 

 knotty problem. Very important evidence has also been derived 

 from the exploration of the burial caves and mounds of Ameri- 

 ca, and much otherwise curious information gathered from 

 them. While the mounds contain almost exclusively round 

 heads, many of the caves as well as the outlaying islands con- 

 tain long heads; and yet far back of this many of the earliest 

 men are round-headed. 



There seems to have been in America, at different times, at 

 least four or five distinct types of men among the ever moving 

 and mingling waves of immigration: some of them including 

 many linguistic families. 



The following table, though not at all up to date, will give 

 an approximate idea of these types. The form of the skull is 

 indicated by the proportion of length to breadth, by length to 

 height, and by breadth to height: called respectively, (a) the 

 cranial index, (6) the vertical index, and (c) the parietal 

 index. The measurements for these indices are taken as fol- 

 lows : For the cranial index, distance from the glabella to the 

 occipital point compared with the greatest parietal width. For 

 the vertical index, the greatest length (as in the cranial 

 index) compared with the height from the basion to the 

 bregma, which is the highest point in the coronal suture. For 

 the parietal index, the greatest parietal width compared with 

 the basion-bregma measurement. By these and numerous other 

 proportions is the human skull and skeleton measured and racial 

 differences determined. In cranial indices a proportion of 74 and 

 Mow compared to 100 is called dolicho-cephalic or longheaded; 

 from 75 to 79 compared to 100 is called meso-cephalic ; while 

 from 80 and upward to 100 is called brachy-cephalic or round- 

 headed. This list could be made more reliable by taking into 

 consideration the discoveries of recent years, not now available; 



