ON A SERIES OF NEPALESE SKULLS. 101 



slight malar divarication, as if tending to the Mongolian type, with a low 

 forehead. The length of the cranium is 7 inches (178*0) ; the breadth is 

 5 inches 3^ lines (135*0). 



Lowlanders (Caste unknown). 



In the series of 10 skulls so marked is shown the same extreme variety in 

 the development of the nasal bones as in the Newar, Lepcha, and Bhotia 

 series ; in a few they are as flat as in the West African Negro, and in a few 

 they are very prominent. There is not the same range of variety in the 

 shape of the cranium ; it is moderately oval, with the forehead narrow, and 

 low in most. 



In three specimens the length of the cranium is 7 inches (178*0), the least 

 length being 6 inches 5 lines (165*0) ; the extreme breadth is 5 inches 3 

 lines (135*0), and this occurs in one of the larger skulls (1 c,c, c, e). In this 

 skull the frontal suture is persistent. All are more or less prognathous, but 

 some of them less so than in the majority of the Nepal tribes. 



A skull marked • Tarai ' (1 k, k, k, k, k) and another (1 b, b, b, b, b) show 

 prominent or divergent malar bones : in the rest the Caucasian proportions 

 of those bones prevail. 



Three of the above series of skulls show a produced nasal spine of the 

 premaxillary part of the upper jaw — peculiarly so in "1 i, i, i, i, i" along the 

 whole extent of the median premaxillary suture. In one skull (lj\j,j,J,J) 

 the squamosals join the frontals ; in the rest the ordinary junction of parietals 

 and alisphenoids prevails. In the skull marked " 1 e, e, e, e, e" there are two 

 large lateral wormian bones, which form the sides of the interparietal half of 

 the superoccipital element. 



Observations. 



The first general remark that is suggested by the series of 90 skulls above 

 characterized is, that the size and capacity of the cranium, or in other words, 

 the amount of brain, is not greater than that which is usually found in the 

 uneducated and lowest class of day-labourers in this country and in Ireland; 

 and that this low development of cranium is associated with more or less 

 prognathism. In all, the general size of the molar teeth accords with that of 

 the white, olive, yellow, and red races of mankind. 



The next remark is suggested by the extent of variety which is displayed, 

 not merely in the entire series, but in the particular tribes or families com- 

 prising it. The long, short and pyramidal, and vertically flattened, forms of 

 cranium are severally exemplified ; just as, in skulls from ancient British 

 places of sepulture, some are found which, "from an unusual degree of narrow- 

 ness of the calvarium and face, belong less obviously to the brachycephalic 

 class than usual*," whilst others show the platycephalic or the acrocephalic 

 form*f. These results of the experienced craniological observers, Davis and 

 Thurnam, concurring with my own, teach us how deceptive any single specimen 

 of the skull of any one tribe would be if viewed and described as exemplify- 

 ing the cranial type of such tribe or family; and it shows the value of such 

 extensive collections as that made by the accomplished and indefatigable 

 Resident at Nepal. 



* Crania Britannica, 4to. Davis and Thurnam, 6, 7 (7). 



t Ibid. 12 (4) " In this stone barrow, on Wettou Hill, presenting only rude flint instru- 

 ments, British pottery, the primitive flexed position of the skeleton, and the short rude cist 

 — therefore with every mark of the primeval period, and no element of remote antiquity 

 wanting — we meet with two separate and distinct aberrant forms of skull in interments of 

 the same age." 



