230, SCIENCE, 
acteristic of the special tribe or group to 
which it pertained. 
Relatively long and narrow heads and 
short and broad heads occur almost every- 
where in greater or less proportion. In de- 
termining the physical characters of a peo- 
ple, so far as this can be done from a study 
of crania, the index of the height of the 
skull is quite as important as that of its 
breadth. These indices simply give us the 
ready means of expressing by figures the 
relative height and breadth of one skull in 
comparison with another, a small part of 
what the zoologist would consider in de- 
scribing, for instance, the skulls of the dif- 
ferent species of the genus Canis. So in 
our craniological studies we should deter- 
mine the relative position, shape and pro- 
portions of the different elements of the 
skull. In fact, we should approach the 
study of human crania with the methods of 
the zoologist, and should use tables of fig- 
ures only so far as such tables give us the 
means of making exact comparisons. Here, 
again, are the anthropologists at a disadvan- 
tage, inasmuch as it is only very recently 
that we are approaching a standard of uni- 
formity in these expressions. It is now 
more than ever essential that the anthro- 
pologists should agree upon a method of 
expressing certain observed facts in soma- 
tology, so that the conscientious labors of 
an investigator who has had a special op- 
portunity for working upon one group of 
man may be made available for comparison 
by investigators of other groups. 
Probably the old method, still largely in 
vogue, of stating averages is responsible for 
many wrong deductions. If we take one 
hundred or more skulls of any people we 
shall find that the two extremes of the se- 
ries differ, to a considerable extent, from 
those which naturally fall into the center 
of the series. 'These extremes in the hands 
of a zoologist would be considered the sub- 
varieties of the central group or variety. 
[N.S. Von. X. No. 243- 
Soin anthropology we should take the cen- 
tral group of the series as furnishing the true 
characters of the particular variety or group 
of man under consideration, and should re- 
gard the extremes as those which have been 
modified by various causes. It may be said 
that this central group is defined by stating 
the mean of all the characters, but this is 
hardly the case, for by giving the mean of 
all we include such extraneous characters 
as may have been derived by admixture or 
from abnormal conditions. 
The many differing characteristics exhib- 
ited in a large collection of crania, brought 
together from various portions of America, 
North and South, it seems to me, are re- 
ducible to several great groups. These 
may be generally classed as the Eskimo 
type the northern and central or so-called 
Indian type, the northwestern brachyce- 
phalic type, the southwestern dolichoce- 
phalie type, the Toltecan brachycephalic 
type and the Antillean type, with probably 
the ancient Brazilian, the Fuegian and the 
pre-Inca types of South America. Each of 
these types is found in its purity in a cer- 
tain limited region, while in other regions 
it is more or less modified by admixture, 
Thus the Toltecan, or ancient Mexican, type 
(which, united with the Peruvian, was sepa- 
rated as the Toltecan family even by Mor- 
ton) occurs, more or less modified by ad- 
mixture in the ancient and modern pueblos 
and in the ancient earth-works of our cen- 
tral and southern valleys. In Peru, more 
in modern than in ancient times, there is 
an admixture of two principal types. At 
the north of the continent we again find 
certain traits that possibly indicate a mix- 
ture of the Eskimo with the early coast 
peoples both on the Pacific and on the At- 
lantic sides of the continent. The north- 
central Indian type seems to have extended 
across the continent and to have branched 
in all directions, while a similar but not so 
extensive branching, northeast and south, 
