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NATURE 



[Feb. 23. 1888 



are among the smallest, if not actually the smallest, 

 people upon the earth. There is no reason to suppose 

 that these skeletons were selected in any way as ex- 

 ceptional specimens, yet they are both of them smaller 

 than any other normal skeletons known, smaller certainly 

 than the smallest Bushman skeleton in any Museum in 

 this country, and smaller than any out of twenty-nine 

 skeletons of the diminutive inhabitants of the Andaman 

 Islands, of which the dimensions have been recorded by 

 Prof. Flower in a previous paper communicated to the 

 Institute. The most liberal calculation of the height of 

 these two skeletons places that of the male at about an 

 inch below 4 feet, and the female at less than an inch 

 above. We may say 4 feet, or i"2i9 metre, as the average 

 height of the two, while a living female of whom Emin 

 Pasha has sent careful measurements is but 1*164 metre, 

 or barely 3 feet 10 inches. The results previously 

 obtained from the measurements of about half-a dozen 

 living Akkas are not quite so low as these, varying from 

 I"2i6 to 1*420, and give a mean for both sexes of r356, or 

 4 feet sj inches. Schweinfurth's original measurements 

 were unfortunately lost, and the numbers since obtained 

 are quite insufficient for establishing the true average of 

 the race, especially as it is not certain that they were all 

 pure-bred specimens. 



In the list given in the third edition of Topinard's 

 " Anthropologie " (1879) only two races appear which 

 have a mean height below 1*500 metres, viz. the Negritos 

 of the Andaman Islands 1*478, and the Bushmen 1*404. Of 

 the real height of the former we have abundant and exact 

 evidence, both from the living individuals and from 

 skeletons, which clearly proves that they considerably ex- 

 ceed the Akkas in stature. That this is also the case with 

 the Bushmen there is little doubt, although the measure- 

 ments of this diminutive race are less numerous and 

 carefully made. 



The point of comparative size being settled, it remains 

 to consider to what races the Akkas are most nearly allied. 

 That they belong in all their essential characteristics to 

 the black or Negroid branch of the human species there 

 can be no doubt, in fact they exhibit all the essential 

 characteristics of that branch even to exaggeration. 

 With regard to the somewhat more rounded form of 

 head (the cephalic index in these examples being 74*4 

 and 77*9 respectively), Hamy has long since pointed out 

 that in equatorial Africa, extending from the west coast 

 far into the interior, are scattered tribes of Negroes, dis- 

 tinguished from the majority of the inhabitants of the 

 continent by this special cranial character, as well as by 

 their smaller stature. The Akkas are grouped by Hamy 

 and Ouatrefages as members of this race, to which the 

 distinctive name of " Negrillo " has been applied. Their 

 small size has naturally led some anthropologists, includ- 

 ing Schweinfurth, to ally them to the diminutive African 

 race inhabiting the southern part of the continent — the 

 Bushmen; but beyond certain characters met with in the 

 whole Negroid branch, including the frizzly hair, there is 

 little in common between them. The B-ushmen are a very 

 strongly marked race, and both their external appearance 

 and osteological characters are so exceptional that they 

 can never be confounded with any other. The natives of 

 the Andaman Islands have also very distinctive characters, 

 which they do not share with the Akkas, whose position 

 all recent investigations show to be that assigned to them 

 by Hamy as members of the Negrillo division of the 

 Negroid branch of mankind. It is possible that these 

 people gave origin to the stories of pygmies so common 

 in the writings of the Greek poets and historians, and 

 whose habitations were often placed near the sources of 

 the Nile. The name "Akka," by which, according to 

 Schweinfurth, the tribe now call themselves, has, singularly 

 enough, been read by Mariette Pasha by the side of a 

 portrait of a dwarf on a monument of the ancient Egyptian 

 empire. 



REV. JOHN HEWITT JELLETT, D.D., D.C.L. 



T T is with extreme regret that we announce the death 

 A of the Reverend the Provost of Trinity College, 

 Dublin. He died last Sunday evening after a very short 

 illness. 



The Provost was present in his usual health at the 

 Spring Commencements, which were held on the 14th 

 inst. in the Hall of Trinity College ; on the i6th he was 

 not quite well ; on the 18th some dangerous symptoms 

 appeared ; and the end came, painlessly and unexpectedly, 

 on the 19th inst. 



John Hewitt Jellett was born at Cashel in the county 

 of Tipperary on December 25, 1817. He entered Trinity 

 College, Dublin, when seventeen years of age. Obtaining 

 a Scholarship in 1836, he graduated as a Senior Modera- 

 tor and Gold Medallist in Mathematics in 1837, and 

 three years afterwards he obtained a Fellowship. 



In 1 848, he was appointed to the Professorship of Natural 

 Philosophy ; in 1870, on the death of the Rev. Dr. Luby, 

 he was co-opted a Senior Fellow of Trinity College, and 

 on the death of the Rev Dr. Lloyd, in 1881, he was 

 nominated by the Crown to the Provostship. 



Twenty years ago he was made one of the Commis- 

 sioners of National Education in Ireland, and he was 

 President of the Royal Irish Academy from 1869 to 1873. 



In 1850, Jellett published his well-known "Treatise on 

 the Calculus of Variations," a subject which had engaged 

 the attention of some of the noblest mathematical intel- 

 lects of the world. The volume contains improvements 

 of previously existing methods, which, had they been given 

 as so many separate treatises, would in themselves have 

 formed no ordinary title to fame ; but the author's aim 

 was rather to compile a memoir which would enable the 

 earnest student to be on a level with the knowledge he 

 had himself attained to, however little that aim might 

 be to his own glory. 



For this work the Royal Irish Academy awarded Jellett 

 in 185 1 their Cunningham Gold Medal. In 1872 appeared 

 the " Treatise on the Theory of Friction," a work well 

 known and highly appreciated. In addition to these 

 volumes a number of scientific memoirs were from time to 

 time published by him in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Irish Academy, and in Leonville's Journal de Mathe- 

 inatique, of which perhaps the more important were on 

 the " Equilibrium and Motion of an Elastic Solid " 

 and " On Researches in Chemical Optics.'' 



Like other well-known mathematicians of the Dublin 

 University, Jellett was as much thought of for his pulpit 

 discourses as for his scientific memoirs. He was of good 

 presence, had a clear articulation and a very persuasive 

 style ; and his appearance in the pulpit of the College 

 chapel was always welcomed. When he dwelt on the moral 

 difficulties of the Old Testament, none went their way 

 without being impressed by the straightforward honesty 

 of the man. 



Occupying a very conspicuous position in a University 

 city like Dublin, the Provost seemed to command the 

 respect of all. Some perhaps there are who would have 

 preferred that the head of so ancient a seat of learning 

 should have taken no part in modern political strife ; but, 

 even amid the feverish excitement of party warfare, the 

 Provost of Trinity College, though he often fearlessly and 

 eloquently put forward his own views, did so without giving 

 offence to any. 



Intimately associated, from the year 1834, with the life 

 of the College over which he at the last presided, the 

 Provost knew much of, and was a prime mover in, many 

 of the changes which have marked out a new life in the 

 place. Within its walls he was known and' respected, 

 while the tribute to his memory paid by all classes of 

 the Dublin citizens is a striking proof of how he was 

 loved. 



This is not the place to dwell on the intense loss his 



