1805.] from the North- West Provinces of India. 297 



exception of those between the parietal and interparietal bones ; 

 these are complicated, though somewhat obliterated. 



Skull 1704. Belonged to a low caste Hindoo female, 25 years 

 old. The sutures are moderately simple, but there are three 

 epactal bones, one wormian bone in the right lambdoid and four 

 in the right parieto-mastoid sutures. There is also a similar bone 

 at the right asterion. On the left side are five wormian bones in 

 the parieto-mastoid suture and two in the lambdoid suture. 



Skull 1705. This is a Mussulman's skull. The man died at 

 the age of 23 or 24. The sutures are fairly simple. There are 

 two wormian bones in the right lambdoid suture and one in the 

 left, as well as a wormian bone in the right parieto-mastoid suture. 



A striking point about these skulls is the enormous quantity 

 of supplementary bones present. There is not one of them but has 

 at least one such bone, while the great majority have always a 

 large number. It would almost seem to be exceptional for them 

 to be absent. 



On turning to the various indices the most noticeable feature 

 is the smallness of the cranial capacity. With one exception (No. 

 1214) they are all microcephalic ; No. 1219, a female skull, has the 

 exceedingly small capacity of 970 c.c. This is the smallest capacity 

 of any skull in the Museum, and represents a brain-weight of 

 843 grammes. 



Cephalic index. Six out of the eight skulls are dolichocephalic, 

 with indices varying from 74"4 to 69. They belong indiscriminately 

 to the low and high castes. Of the other two skulls, one has a 

 high index of 83"6, and the second a slightly lower index of 79 "9. 

 The former skull was that of a Mussulman, the latter belonged to a 

 low caste Hindoo female. 



Height index. There is a good deal of variation among these 

 skulls Avith regard to this index. The highest index is 83"3, and 

 the lowest 71'5. Broadly speaking, they may be described as 

 metriocephalic. There does not seem to be any difference in ac- 

 cordance with caste. 



Gnathic index. They are all orthognathous with the exception 

 of 1219, which has an index of 101*7. Here again there does not 

 seem to be any caste difference. 



The nasal index is of interest owing to Risley's suggestion 

 that the high castes have a leptorhine and the low caste a platyrhine 

 nose. These skulls do not accord with this view ; but at the same 

 time it must be remembered that while I am dealing with a very few 

 skulls, Risley made his deduction from an enormous number of 

 observations on the living. It may be as well, however, to put 

 down the nasal indices in order from lowest to highest and see 

 how far they agree or disagree with Risley's results : 



