Ajigtist 29, 1878] 



NATURE 



48 



He filled the skull with mustard seed well ihaken, and pressed ^ 

 into it with the thumb, and then poured into a long wooden box 

 with glass bides in it, in which it was well shaken and pressed 

 down. The figures on the glass indicated the spaces filled. This I 

 he thought was the most satisfactory way as yet invented, and j 

 they could hardly hope for better. He always kept his experi- 

 mental skull by him when measuring other skulls, in order that 

 lie might occasionally go back on it to see if he had gone wrong. 

 Now, as to the measurement of the skulls of the different races 

 of the human family, a very important point to consider, and a 

 \tTy difficult one, was the sexes, because there was a great differ- 

 ence in the size of the skulls ; a much greater difference than 

 there was between men of different races. To get the average of 

 any race they must get a large number of skulls, and he must say 

 their collection was very insufficient at present. According to a 

 comparison between the skulls of sixty-three men. of various 

 races, and skulls of twenty-four women, the size of the woman's 

 skull to the man's was as 854 to 1,000. The largest normal 

 skull he had ever measured was as much as 2,075. ^^ knew 

 nothing of its history. It might have been the head of a great 

 philosopher, but unfortunately they were not in the habit of 

 getting the heads of philosophers in their museum. Nearly all 

 the English skulls were those of persons in the lowest ranks of 

 life. It was these they had to compare with the specimens of 

 other races. The smallest head he had measured was 960 centi- 

 metres, and that belonged to one of those peculiar people in the 

 centre of Ceylon, who were now nearly extinct. The largest 

 average capacity of any human head he had meastired was that 

 of a race of long, flat-headed people on the West Coast of 

 Africa. The Laplanders and Esquimaux, who were a very 

 small people, had very large skulls. The latter gave an average 

 measurement of 1,546. He then came to the English skull, 

 which was nearly the same size — 1,542; but, as he had said, 

 they belonged to the lower grades of English skulls. He could 

 not tell them anything about Irish skulls, for there was not a 

 single specimen of the Irish skull in any London museum. The 

 inhabitants of the Canary Islands give a capacity of 1,498 ; the 

 Japanese, 1,486 ; the Chinese, 1,424 ; the modern Italian, 

 1,475 ; the ancient Egyptian, 1,464 ; the true Polynesians, 

 1,454; negroes of various kinds, 1,377; the Kaffirs, 1,348; 

 Hindoos, 1,306. They then came to the Australian aborigines, 

 who were amongst the smallest, only giving an average of 1,283. 

 There were two races still below the Australians, namely, the 

 Andamanese, who were a very diminutive people, with a capacity 

 of 1,220, and the Veddahs, of Ceylon, who had an average 

 skull. 



The President (Prof. Huxley) said he might, without hesita- 

 tion, offer the best thanks of the Section to Prof. Flower for the 

 important and interesting paper he had just read. Persons not 

 ordinarily occupied with scientific pursuits might not be aware 

 of the amount of care that had to be taken when it was desired 

 to do any good in scientific matters in obtaining data, which 

 data would, when obtained, pack into the very smallest possible 

 results. It would be seen what care was required to obtain 

 measurements of the cubical contents of the skulls, and yet the 

 whole of the labour, if Mr. Flower published his paper, as he 

 hoped he would, would go into the space occupied by the three 

 or four rows of figures. There was one very interesting ques- 

 tion he wished to put to Mr. Flower — whether it was possible 

 to establish not only a series of absolute measurements of the 

 capacities of the skull, but also some kind of index of capacity 

 in which can be expressed the ratio of capacity of the skull to 

 the stature of the person to whom it belonged, or if it was 

 impossible to obtain that, yet even to obtain such data as would 

 show the relation between the contents of the skull and the 

 length of the part of the skull which was, as it were, the 

 foundation of the skull. 



Department of Anatomy and Physiology. 



On a Direct Method Jor Determining the Calorific Power of 

 Alimentary Substances, by J. A. Wanklyn and W. J. Cooper. — 

 The amoimt of oxygen consumed by an organic substance being 

 the measure of its heat-producing force, the importance to phy- 

 siologists of a direct and rapid method for measuring the con- 

 sumption of oxygen in organic fluids is obvious. It is well known 

 that an elementary combustion will effect this object, but, as is 

 likewise well known, the great difficulties which beset it render 

 it unavailable for physiological researches. The process by 

 which we obtain all the results of an elementary combustion can 

 be completed in about an hour, and in the course of our experi- 



ments on various organic substances we have been enabled to 

 get an amount of oxygen absorbed which is equal to the theo- 

 retical quantity required by the substance operated upon. In 

 point of fact, we have so modified Forchhammer's process as to 

 make it work in a satisfactory manner, 



Forchhammer's process, as hitherto practised, does not effect 

 anything approximating to complete oxidation down to carbonic 

 acid and water, as was illustrated by some experiments published 

 by Frankland and Armstrong in 1868 ^<ide Chem. Soc. yourn., 

 vol. vi. p. 82), which we quote : — 



Name of substance 



(30 parts dissolved 



in 1,000,000 parts 



of water). 



Gum arable 

 Cane-sugar 

 Starch 



Oxygen 

 absorbed 



during 

 ■six hours. 



o'3S 

 0-15 

 0-30 



Oxygen 



required 



for complete 



oxidat.on. 



35*5 

 337 

 33*5 . 



showing that, as usually carried out, the oxidising process does 

 not avail to accomplish more than about one-hundredth part of 

 the task set before it. 



The modifications whereby we have completely altered the 

 character of the Forchhammer process are as follows : — 



Instead of simply mixing the standard solution of perman- 

 ganate with the water to be examined, we distil a given volume 

 of the water (say i litre) with a considerable excess of standard 

 solution of permanganate, and thereby get more oxidising action 

 than in the ordinary operation. We find advantage in having 

 the liquid strongly alkaline during the distillation ; but we render 

 it acid before titrating the residue. 



Mr. Lawson Tait, F.R.C.S., read a paper entitled Note on the 

 Occurrence of a Sacral Dimple andits Possible Significance. — Some 

 years ago he noticed casually the occurrence of a ciurious pit-like 

 depression or dimple in the skin over the lower bones of the 

 sacrum amongst the patients of the hospital for women to which 

 he was attached. He paid no special attention to it until about 

 two years ago, when an instance came under his notice of a 

 woman in whom it was well marked, and in all of whose children 

 it was to be observed. Three of them, all girls, had it strongly 

 pronounced ; and in one, the eldest, about eight years of age, 

 he found the best marked instance he had yet seen. It was 

 quite a centimetre in depth, and it expanded outward, so that its 

 mouth had a diameter of about 13 millimetres. This circum- 

 stance induced him to make observations as to the frequency of 

 its occurrence in some hundreds of women passing under his 

 notice, and he found that in 55 per cent, no trace of it was 

 visible, that in 22 per cent, it was faintly marked, and in 23 per 

 cent, it was well marked. Occasionally two depressions were 

 present instead of one, both being in the middle line always, 

 and situated from half an inch to an inch and a half apart. The 

 average age of the women, in whom it was well marked, was 

 slightly over 32 years, whereas that of those in Avhom it could 

 not be observed was nearly 45, from which he concluded that 

 it had a tendency to disappear with advancing age. The same 

 inference was to be drawn from observations made by Dr. A. 

 H. Carter at the Children's Hospital. The prevalence of this 

 curious mark was suggestive that it must be a remainder from some 

 embryonic process connected with the neural canal and its closure. 

 The explanation which he was about to offer of its significance 

 must be viewed charitably, and as the result of an accidental 

 observation. Mr. Tait then gave an account of the appearance 

 presented by the body of a kitten remarkable as having no tail. 

 The mother was a favourite cat in a district where there 

 were no tailless torn cats. The lady who presented it to him 

 told him that during the whole of the kitten's brief life water 

 was seen to run from the spot where the tail ought to have been, 

 which water was industriously removed by the mother. The 

 kitten took nourishment, and moved about after the fashion of 

 new-bom kittens, but did not appear to use its hind legs. On 

 examining the body he found a small aperture through which 

 fluid could still be pressed, and on opening this carefully he 

 found that it passed through a deficiency of the neural arches 

 of the sacrum, durectly into the cavity of the spinal cord. At 

 this point the cord broke up into its ultimate branches, and the 

 tail was represented just as it is in other tailless vertebrates, the 

 neural arches being inclosed, and the caudal vertebra being 

 represented by only three elongated centra, enveloped in a 

 slight fold of skin, just as in the Manx cat and in the Guinea 

 pig. The study of a number of human sacra revealed the 



