NATURE 



\_May 2, 1878 



is twenty-five months old, has twenty teeth. It is true 

 that this precocity corresponds, as is often the case, to a 

 feeble longevity. The 7netis of forty-one years appears 

 already old, and it is generally acknowledged that in 

 Greenland a man of fifty-five, or a woman of sixty years, 

 is an exception. Young girls are quite formed at from 

 fourteen to fifteen years ; suckling continues for four or 

 five years. 



Their height is small ; their black hair is straight ; the 

 face broad and flat ; the head is dolichocephalic ; the 

 cheeks are large, plump, and round ; the lips are thick, the 

 lower pendent ; the eyes are small, dark, oblique, like 

 those of the Chinese, and connected by a fold of skin at 

 the level of the internal angle. The teeth are large, 

 yellow, but sound ; the canines a little projecting. The 

 beard is feebly developed, as is indeed the hair in other 

 parts of the body ; the skin is brown and even black 



among the aged. The following figures give a more 

 precise idea of these peculiarities : — 



Their mean height is i*46 metres, a figure higher 

 than that which is given by Hearn to the Eskimo 

 (1*299 ™' ^or the men and I'lji m. for the women), but 

 inferior to that of MM. Bellebor and Guerault (i"So m.) ; 

 a figure which places them in the category of small-sized 

 men, i.e., under i'6o m., and between the Veddas {I'SZS 

 according to Bailey) and the Negritos (1*478 m.), after 

 whom we find only the Bushmen. 



The cephalic index places these Eskimo among the 

 dolichocephalic, one only, the woman, among the sub- 

 dolichocephalic. Their mean index is 73*51 (maximum 

 76*88, and minimum 70'95). The mean index of Bessels 

 was more dolichocephalic still ; it was 71*37. It should 

 not be forgotten, however, that the figure varies with the 

 locality of the Eskimo. The Eastern Greenlanders of 



^'^-M~^\^' 



Fig. 4.— The Eskimo in the Jardin d'Acclimatation. 



Davis gave a cephalic index of 71, the Western, 72 ; those 

 of Virchow, 71*8 ; those of Pansh, 72. 



It is necessary to compare the anterior or intellectual 

 part of the cranium with the posterior part. The results 

 deserve to be given one by one. In Okabak, the total 

 horizontal curve of the cranium being supposed equal to 

 100, the anterior curve will be represented by 45*2 ; in 

 Kojanki by 48*5 ; in the woman by 48'i ; lastly in the 

 half breed by 44*7 ; I do not speak of the children. It is 

 worthy of remark that this numerical classification corre- 

 sponds exactly with that which each of us had made in 

 estimating the intelligence of each of these subjects, 

 Kojanki and Mrs. Okabak were judged superior to the two 

 others. The mean of the anterior cranium is 46*6, which 

 places the Eskimo in what Gratiolet designates the occi- 

 pital races — those among whom the posterior cranium 

 outweighs the anterior cranium. The mean facial angle 

 is 66*7°. The height of the nose being supposed equal to 

 ioo,''the mean breadth will be 70*5, while among the 



Cochin-Chinese it is 89, and among the negroes no, 112, 

 and even 115. One index gives very well the measure of 

 the small prominence or flatness of the nose ; this is the 

 antero-posterior nasal index. Among our Eskimo, the 

 breadth of the nose at its base being supposed equal to 

 100, the mean prominence of that base in front will be 

 55*5, while the same mean index among Europeans is 

 66-6. 



Such are the principal facts I have been able to collect 

 in reference to the Eskimo of Jacobshavn, now in Paris ; 

 they may be defective, because based on a very small 

 number of subjects ; nevertheless, it is to be wished that 

 the director of the Jardin d'Acclimatation will continue the 

 experiment so well begun, and that besides the Nubians 

 and Eskimo he will introduce other representatives of 

 races so interesting and so little known, whom civilisation 

 will, so far as science is concerned, cause to disappear 

 sooner or later. 



A. BORDIER 



