THE GLENOID FOSSA IN THE SKULL OF THE ESKIMO. 5 



youngsters, some of them not yet over three years of age 

 chewed the dripping meat and blubber." (This meat and blub- 

 ber was raw and the author was there describing the scene of 

 feasting after the killing of some seals). Lastly, "Very small 

 tots might be seen at any time chewing pieces of raw seal or 

 walrus meat." 



This will be enough to show the nature of the food of these 

 people and how very essential it must be for them to be provided 

 with strong jaws and with biting and chewing muscles corres- 

 pondingly large and powerful. When we examine a series of 

 skulls of adult Eskimo, we have ample evidence that our 

 conclusions from the nature of their food, are borne out 

 by the form of their jaws and the muscle attachments 

 on their skulls. An Eskimo's jaws are essentially of a biting 

 and chewing type. The extent for the attachment of the tem- 

 poral muscles on the sides of the skull is very great, being on the 

 whole more marked in the skulls of this race than in 

 any other of the existing races of man. The external pterygoid 

 plates are large; this is noted in a paper by J. Brierley and F. 

 G. Parsons. 1 "The external pterygoid plate is very broad 

 antero-posteriorly. This is probably due to the development of 

 the pterygoid muscles." This is important since the external 

 pterygoid muscles are the chief agents in the lateral movements 

 of the mandible and, as I shall endeavour to show, it is just 

 this lateral triturating movement when practised early and 

 extensively, that is of importance in its flattening effect on the 

 glenoid fossa. The zygomatic arches and malar bones are large 

 and projecting. Especially is the form of the mandible note- 

 worthy (see Plate III); the ascending ramus is low, broad, and 

 strong, the area for insertion of the masseter and pterygoid 

 muscles being well marked and very extensive. Now the super- 

 ficial portion of the masseter muscle assists the external pterygoid 

 in drawing the lower jaw forward upon the upper, the jaw being 

 drawn back again by the deep fibres of the masseter and posterior 

 fibres of the temporal. The marked development of the mas- 

 seter and the posterior fibres of the temporal muscles in the 



1 See "Notes on a Collection of Ancient Eskimo Skulls," Journ. Anthr. 

 Inst., 1906. 



