July 10, 1879] 



NATURE 



245 



twenty-three Europeans was 65 '9 1, and in 200 scapula; of 

 Europeans, measured by Dr. Garson, the average index 

 was 65 "2. The twenty-five Negro skeletons in the Paris 

 Museum gave an average scapular index of 68' 16, and the 

 six scapulae of the three Negro skeletons in the College 

 Museum, 717. Australians give an average of about 68'9. 

 Of the Andaman skeletons, the twenty-one scapulae which 

 have the epiphyses united give an average index of 69-8, 

 and thus, in this character also, they stand in close rela- 

 tionship to the Negro and to the Australian. Another 

 sign of inferiority in the scapula of the Andamanese is 

 the almost constant absence of the supra-scapular notch. 



The pelvis is also very important for comparison, and 

 the difference that is most obvious and easily estimated 

 lies in the form of the superior aperture or brim, which 

 is always more elongated from before backwards, and 

 narrowed laterally in the apes than it is in man. The 

 relation of the antero-posterior to the transverse diameter 

 of the brim, the latter measurement being taken as 100, 

 gives the pelvic index. In the anthropoid apes the antero- 

 posterior diameter is always the larger, and in infancy 

 and childhood in our own race the pelvic index is also as 

 high as, or above, 100. In adult man, except in rare cases, 

 the transverse diameter is the greater, and the index 

 consequently below 100, in the female being lower than in 

 the male. In Europeans the average pelvic index is 

 about 81 for the male and 78 for the female sex. The 

 average of 17 male Negroes, according to Verneau, is 89 ; 

 of ten Australians, according to Prof. Flower, 98 ; but the 

 Andamanese give the highest figure of all, the average 

 index of 8 males being loi, the maximum being 116 (the 

 highest index of a human pelvis recorded), the minimum 

 92"6. Of the 9 females the average index is 95'2, the maxi- 

 mum 107 '8, the minimum S6'4. No race, of which a 

 sufficient number of pelves to give fair averages have 

 been measured, has shown a form of the pelvis departing 

 so widel)- from the European type. It should be noted, 

 however, that the difference between the sexes is as fully, 

 or even more fully, pronounced than it is in the higher 

 races, contrary to an idea which has been sometimes 

 held, based, however, upon an insufficient number of 

 observations. 



Cranial Characters. — The following observations are 

 founded upon tvrenty-four specimens, all adults, of which 

 twelve belong to the male and twelve to the female sex . 

 They all present a very considerable general resemblance. 

 They present a pecuhar combination of characters, which 

 distinguish them from the crania of all other races, unless 

 it may be some of the closely allied Negrito population 

 of the Indian Archipelago. Among these twenty-four 

 skulls none present any artificial or pathological deforma- 

 tion. 



In general size the skulls may be considered as belong- 

 ing to the smallest, or nearly the smallest, of any race. 

 The cranial capacity of the males ranges between 1,150 

 and 1,360 cubic centimetres, the average being 1,244 c.c. 

 (76 c. ins ); that of the females between 1,025 =ind 1,250 

 c.c, the average being 1,128 c.c. (69 c. ins.), the pro- 

 portion between the two sexes being, therefore, as 1,000 

 to 906, almost exacdy the same as that between English 

 men and women. The average circumference in the male 

 is 480 millimetres ; in the female, 462 millimetres. 



The general form of the cranium is short and round, 

 and the parietal region is greatly developed at the expense 

 of the frontal, and especially of the occipital regions. 

 The relation of the greatest transverse breadth in the 

 parietal region to the length is expressed by the latitudinal 

 e«(^t-.ir (sometimes called " cephalic index "). This in both 

 sexes averages 820, and they are therefore, as a race, truly 

 brachycephalic, all those skulls, the index of which is 

 above 800, coming into this category. The average index 

 of height — altitudinal index — in both sexes is 775, being 

 -770 in the males and 779 in the females. In only one out 

 of the twenty-four skulls is the breadth less than the 



height ; they thus difier greatly from the Papuans and 

 Melanesians. 



The sutures of the cranium are, as in most inferior races, 

 rather simple. Metopism, or persistence of the mid- 

 frontal suture throughout life, occurs in four out of thirty- 

 four known cases of skulls of Andamanese, and thus 

 seems rather more frequent than among Europeans ; this 

 is rather surprising, as it is a character which generally 

 accompanies supjjriority of development. More skulls, 

 however, must be examined to establish the actual fre- 

 quency of its occurrence in the race. The disposition of 

 the sutures in the region called //^rw;/ by Broca, where 

 the frontal, parietal, squamosal, and alisphenoidal bones 

 meet, is always worthy of note in estimating the differen- 

 tial characters of races. In many inferior races the in- 

 terval between the frontal and squamosal bones is greatly 

 diminished, and often, especially among the Melanesians, 

 disappears altogether, the squamosal then directly uniting 

 with the frontal. Very frequently small independent 

 ossicles, or epipteric bones, are interposed. 



In the Andamanese the pterion is usually very narrow, 

 but in six only out of forty-six cases examined (taking 

 both sides) did the squamosal reach the frontal. In eight 

 cases epiteric bones were developed. The general surface 

 of the cranium is smooth, and the muscular ridges little 

 pronounced. The forehead is rounded and even, and 

 the glabella and superorbital eminences are always very 

 little developed. The interspace between the orbits is 

 wide and flat, and the orbits are round, the average index, 

 or the ratio of height to width of margin, the latter taken 

 as 100, being as high as 910. The nasal bones are 

 straight, with nearly parallel sides, and not prominent. 

 The width of the nasal opening brings the Andamanese 

 into the mcsorhine category of Broca, though approach- 

 ing the platyrhine, the average index being 512. Of the 

 twenty-four skulls, five are platyrhine, seventeen meso- 

 rhine, and two leptorhine. With regard to the projection 

 forward of the jaws, eleven are decidedly prognathous, 

 eight mesognathous, and five orthognathous. 



Comparison with other Races. — With the Australians, 

 the Andamanese have very little affinity ; it is to the other 

 wooly-haired races that we must naturally turn in endea- 

 vouring to find their nearest relatives. The typical 

 Melanesians and Papuans differ greatly in their principal 

 cranial characters ; the Tasmanians, also, differed widely 

 from the Andamanese. Manyof the African Negroes, again, 

 although usually dolichocephalic, extremely prognathous 

 and platyrhine, have the smooth brow and round orbit 

 seen in the Andamanese, and not generally met with iu 

 the true Oceanic Negroes. 



The natives of the Andaman Islands, with whom may 

 probably be associated the less known Aetas of the 

 Philippines, the Semangs of the Malay Peninsula, and 

 some other scattered races of the Indo-Malay Peninsula, 

 thus constitute a race apart, to which the name Negrito 

 may properly be applied. At first sight, they appear in 

 their craniological characters to present little affinity to 

 either of the other woolly-haired races, but it is probable 

 that they represent a small or infantile type of the same 

 primary group. It is very possible, but this is purely 

 hypothetical, that the Andamanese may be the unchanged 

 or little modified representatives of a primitive type, from 

 which the African Negroes, on the one hand, and the 

 Oceanic Negroes on the other, have taken their origin, 

 and hence everything connected with their history or 

 structure becomes of the greatest interest to the anthro- 

 pologist. 



The Inhabitants of India 



By their physical characters, the various populations 

 which inhabit the great continent of Asia attach them- 

 selves more or less to one or other of two very distinct 

 types : — I. The Mongolian ; and II. That which for want 

 of a better name must still be distinguished by the title 

 applied to it by Blumenbach, the Caucasian. 



