192 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



characters as survivals of early stages of the evolution of modern mani 

 from ancient man. These characters may be accompanied by indications- 

 of infantilism and perhaps of special adaptations. 



The Andamanese, Semang, Aeta and Tapiro all live around the south- 

 easterly fringe of Asia, in a region where land-connections must have been 

 far more extensive when the coastline was near the present 100-fathom 

 line. They are all very short, with small heads of moderate relative 

 length, i.e. there is every ground for thinking that among them the growth 

 in length noted for a number of early types of modern man has not taken 

 place. Their noses are flat and broad, again an early feature, but this is- 

 less marked in the Tapiro. The skin is very dark and the hair is set in 

 close spirals. It seems almost necessary to think that some of these 

 types have left their mark on the population of various parts of India. 

 Papua has other pigmy and short peoples besides the Tapiro, people who' 

 have spirally curved hair and are moderate-headed, some even very long- 

 headed. In the Semang the ratio arm/leg is said to be unusually high. 



The Akka and other pigmies of equatorial Africa are again small and 

 small-headed, the relative head-length being again only moderate, so that 

 the cephalic index is 77-81, but lower in some groups. In these people 

 pigmentation is less than it usually is in Africa, and downy hair occurs in 

 notable development, especially on the legs ; these points suggest partial 

 infantilism, especially as the very short stature is due rather to extremely 

 short legs than to smallness of the trunk-length. The absence of the 

 very dark colouring otherwise so general in Africa has been supposed ta 

 be due to forest life, and this environmental influence may have played! 

 an important part in the evolution of the pigmy. 



The Bushmen of S. W. Africa are a little taller than the above ; their- 

 body is poor in hair, though the hairs are in close spirals, and among them. 

 Fritsch''^ finds down-hairs (lanugo) here and there. The head, according 

 to Broom," has small measurements, but the relative length is greater 

 than the above, so the cephalic index on the skull ranges down from 78 tO' 

 about 72 ; the head is low in the crown. Are these survivors of a stage 

 in the lengthening process, or are they due to a cross between two types ?' 

 It has sometimes been supposed that the low stature of the Bushmen is 

 a result of poor feeding. The skin-colouring is not very dark. The 

 nose is very broad and flat, the brow-ridges are not marked, but the cheek- 

 bones stand out. 



The Tasmanians, now just extinct, were of moderate height. The 

 head form ranged from brachycephaly to well-marked dolichocejihaly.. 

 One skull, for example, is 205 mm. in length and has a cranial index of 

 72.2. The basi-bregmatic height of the skull is not great, but its average 

 value is only 5 mm. less than that of the breadth, and only 75 per cent, 

 of the skulls known from Tasmania have the height less than the breadth. 

 The colour of the Tasmanians was very dark, their hair was in close- 

 spirals and was fairly abundant, their nose was very broad and fiat. 

 Their brow-ridges, in contradistinction to those of the peoples mentioned 



i' Fritsch, G. ' Das Haupthaar,' 1912 ; ' Die menschliche Haupthaaranlage/ 

 1915. 



!■* Broom, R. ' Craniology of Yellow-skinned Races of South Africa,' Journ. 

 Boy. Anihr. Inst., liii., 1923. 



