212 



NATURE 



\yuly6, 1876 



corkscrew locks. This peculiarity allowed them to load 

 their hair with red ochre, so that it hung down in separate 

 ringlets. In colour it is of a very dark brown, popularly 

 called black, approaching in tint to No. 41 ^ of Prof. 

 Broca's " Colour Types." It was difficult to investigate 

 the hair of the women, as, from an idea that it added to 

 their charms, they shaved their heads either with a sharp 

 stone or with broken bottles, on the advent of civilisa- 

 tion ! The women among the Mincopies of the Andaman 

 Islands have the same custom. It is a curious coinci- 

 dence also that the latter race, as did the Tasmanians, 

 were in the habit of carrying fragments of the bones of 

 their relations, as a mark of affection, suspended necklace- 

 wise round their necks. The peculiar growth of hair in 

 spiral tufts is natural to these races, which have peculiar 

 crisp excentrically elliptical hair, and is no work of art, 

 being of spontaneous growth, contrary to the assertions 

 of those whose ideas of race are founded on missionary 

 models. The hair on all the other parts of the body, of 

 which there was no deficiency, was of the same character, 

 there being even on the borders of the whiskers little 

 pellets of hair on the cheeks, " like pepper-corns." The 

 nose of the Tasmanian was not elevated, but very broad 

 across the alas. The upper lip was long, and the mouth 

 wide, but of a pleasant, calm expression. In the strength 

 of the jaws, moreover, the size of the teeth, and the large 

 area of the grinding surface of the molars, the Tasma- 

 nians agree with the Australians, and contrast strikingly 

 with European races. 



There is a peculiarity in the physiognomy of the Tas- 

 manians which is difficult to describe to others, but 

 which is obvious to those, who, like Dr. Davis, have long 

 studied their crania. It consists in " a particular round- 

 ness, or spherical form, which manifests itself in all the 

 features." Dr. Paul Topinard, too, states (" Etude sur les 

 Tasmaniens," M^ra. de la Soc. d'Anthrop. de Paris, iii. 

 309) that there are certain marks in the cranium which 

 would " enable him to recognise it anywhere." 



The thickness and density of the bones of the skull, 

 even in women, is very striking, and " constitutes a de- 

 cided peculiarity of the race." The frontal and parietal 

 bones, for instance, of a small woman's skull, from which 

 the calvarium had been sawn off, was 0*4 inch, or 6 milli- 

 metres, in thickness. The orbits in the Tasmanian skull 

 are, according to Dr. Topinard, small. He says, more- 

 over, that the skull has a sinister expression, while, on the 

 other hand. Dr. Davis regards the countenance of the 

 Tasmanian as a " benevolent, if not mild," one. 



With regard to prognathism, both in superior alveolar 

 • and in inferior alveolar, or mental prognathism, the Aus- 

 tralfan cranium much exceeds that of the Tasmanian.^ 

 This is well seen in Dr. Davis's plates (Tab. II. III.). 



Touching cranial capacities, Dr. Topinard concludes 

 that " the anterior lobes of the brain have nearly the same 

 relative development in the two series of skulls, i.e., the 

 Tasmanians and others" [that is, Parisian and Breton 

 skulls taken for comparison]. " The anterior part of the 

 posterior cerebral lobes is a little less developed in the 

 Tasmanians. The posterior part is much less developed. 

 The cerebellum is more voluminous in the Tasmanians, 

 by a quantity approximately equal to the loss which the 

 posterior cerebral lobes undergo." 



On examining the skeleton of a Tasmanian it will be 

 observed that the bones have the usual robustness seen 

 in European skeletons, differing thus quite from those of 

 the Australian, which are slender. In two skeletons each 

 belonging to one of these races, the last rib was in both 

 three inches long, while in those of an Australian woman 

 described by Prof. Owen this rib was but little more than 

 one inch in length. The ilia are decidedly more everted 



' The darkest. 



^ In a skull, however, of a male Tasmanian about thirty years o age, 

 belongmg to Dr. Davis, the prognathism, both mental and supra-alveolar, is 

 greater than in that of an Australian youth about twenty years old. 



in the Tasmanian than in the Australian. The patellse 

 are also larger in the former. There is no olecranon 

 foramen in the humerus of either skeleton. The tibias 

 are, moreover, straight in both, and not of sabre form. 



In twenty-four Australian skulls of both sexes, there 

 was a mean weight of brain of 41 "38 ounces, or a mean 

 internal capacity of 8ri cubic inches, while in eleven 

 Tasmanian skulls of both sexes the mean cerebral weight 

 was 42*25 ounces, or a corresponding cranial capacity of 

 82'8 cubic inches. From this it may be deduced that the 

 Tasmanian excels the Australian in having a brain 'Z'j oz., 

 or twenty-four grammes heavier, or an internal capacity 

 of skull superior to the extent of 17 cubic inch. This 

 squares with Dr. Topinard's observations. 



This being the case, we should suppose that the inven- 

 tive powers of the Tasmanians would exceed those of the 

 Australians ; but this, possibly owing to some extra sti- 

 mulus to the invention of the latter race, is not the case. 

 It seems, indeed, probable that it was the abundance of 

 food in Tasmania which was the cause of the non-inven- 

 tion of two of the implements so necessary to the Aus- 

 tralian when engaged in the chase, to wit, the " boom- 

 erang " and the " wommera," or throwing stick, by which 

 spurs were hurled, both of which are indigenous to Aus- 

 tralia, not being known elsewhere. The Tasmanian had, 

 indeed, the " waddy," a short stick of hard wood, which 

 they threw with a rotatory motion so as to kill a bird 

 on a tree, but this was a far less elegant weapon than its 

 Australian representative, the boomerang. As evidence 

 that the invention of implements is not commensurate, 

 wholly and simply, with cerebral development, we must 

 bear in mind that the bow and arrow, so useful to the 

 Asiatics, Pacific Islanders, and American Indians, was 

 never discovered either by the Tasmanian or Australian. 



A surprising deficiency among the Australian and Tas- 

 manian tribes is a total absence of pottery, and this 

 among many races that had no substitute in the pericarp 

 of fruits. This is a hard fact for those who would fain 

 believe in the derivation of Australian and Tasmanian 

 from other races. In some parts of Australia where long 

 drought has been suffered the natives have actually used 

 the dried calvarium of a deceased person, cementing the 

 sutures with a vegetable gum, upon which they stick the 

 shell of an oyster to protect the resin from being rubbed 

 off. The Tasmanians were further quite unacquainted 

 with the shield. Nothing is so demonstrative of the 

 complete isolation of the Tasmanians as the fact that, 

 though separated from Australia by a strait but little more 

 than 300 miles wide, there had been no intercommunica- 

 tion from either side between the two countries until the 

 advent of Europeans. This fact tells strongly against 

 those who believe in the almost universal spontaneous 

 diffusion of races. The Tasmanians further had no 

 native dogs, nor was the practice of circumcision known 

 among them, facts tending further to prove the isolation 

 of the two races. Neither this race, moreover, nor the 

 Australians of the south, were in possession of boats, so 

 that even the intermediate islands in the straits were 

 quite uninhabited. There is reason, however, to believe 

 that, like the Australians, some tribes of the Tasmanians 

 were accustomed to punch out the front teeth. This rests 

 only on osteological evidence, as no account has ever 

 been given of the prevalence of the custom among this 

 race. 



Finally, " all that can be said with truth is that the 

 Taynanians are not Austrahans, they are not Papuans, 

 and they are not Polynesians. Although they may present 

 resemblances to some of these, they differ from them sub- 

 stantially and essentially." From this it may be concluded 

 that the Tasmanians were one of the most isolated races 

 of mankind which ever existed. They have been one of 

 the earliest races to perish totally by coming in contact 

 with Europeans, and '* their record now belongs wholly to 

 the past." - J. C. G. 



