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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 475 



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CUERENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. — I. 



[Edited by D. O. Brinton, M.D., LL.D.] 



Evolution of the Human Skull. • 



Dr. Paul Topinard of Paris, whose studies ia physical 

 anthropology place him in the front raalss of that science, 

 has summed up in a recent number of L^ Anthropologie the 

 results of several years' investigations concerning the trans- 

 formation of the animal into the human skull. He demoQ- 

 strates that this change is brought about by the gradual de- 

 velopment of the brain, and the resulting mechanical 

 pressure on the hard parts adjaceut. The pressure exerted 

 by the enlarging hemispheres on the occipital bone is in a 

 direction backwards and downwards, so that what is its su- 

 perior surface in ordinary mammals becomes the posterior 

 in man, and its posterior face the inferior. The occipital 

 foramen, instead of looking backwards, is in man turned 

 downwards. The increase in size of the anterior lobes of the 

 hemispheres brings about still greater changes in that portion 

 of the cranium. The orbits are pressed from a lateral into a 

 frontal position, the face, instead of being in front and ob- 

 lique, becomes vertical, and below the frontal lobes; and 

 numerous minor alterations in the anatomy of the parts are 

 necessitated by these changes. It is easy to arrange a per- 

 fectly graduated series of skulls illustrating this development 

 from the lowest mammals up to man. Next to him are the 

 monkeys, below these the lemures, and then follow the infe- 

 rior mammals. Everywhere the principle of harmonic ac- 

 commodation of organ to function is strikingly shown. Al- 

 though the general statement of this evolution has been 

 frequently advanced, it has never bsfore received so complete 

 a demonstration. 



Physical Types in the Natives of South America. 



The effort has repeatedly been made to subdivide the na- 

 tive tribes of South America on purely physical characters. 

 It was attempted more than fifty years ago by Alcide D'Or- 

 bigny, in his "L'Homme Americain;" but his plan has not 



proved satisfactory. The latest scheme is that of Dr. Deni- 

 ker, who accompanied the French scientific expedition to 

 Cape Horn. He measured some eighty odd Yabgans, a 

 tribe who live on the southern shore of Tierra del Fuego. 

 He found them of short stature, head large and mesocheph- 

 alic, prominent superciliary ridges and malar bones, fore- 

 head narrow, low, and retreating, eyes small and horizontal, 

 orbits medium, mouth large, lips thick, slight prognathism. 

 On the strength of these measurements. Dr. Deniker has 

 urged in various scientific publications that we find in the 

 Yahgaus a " race " quite different from the Patagonians and 

 allied to the Botocudos, the Coroados, and the Aymaras, as 

 well as to the ancient Lagoa Santa peoples. This grouping, 

 allowing that it is anatomically accurate, serves to illustrate 

 how useless is an ethnographic classification based on small 

 anatomical points. The Aymaras, Botocudos and Yahgans 

 are as far apart in language, culture and character as any 

 tribes which could be selected in Sojth America. More- 

 over, the Botucudos differ widely among themselves is phys- 

 ical aspects, as Dr. Paul Ehrenreich has abundantly shown. 

 In fine, it is high time to dismiss the anatomical subdivisions 

 of the American race, and rely on language as, after all, 

 when prudently employed, our best guide. 



Deniker's theories will probably attract the more attention 

 by being brought into relation with the interesting recent 

 discoveries by Florentino Ameghino in the eocene beds of 

 Patagonia. This eminent geologist ha's described, in a late 

 number of the Revista Argentina de Historia Natural, the 

 remains of four species of monkeys from what he believes to 

 be the lower eocene — which would place them far more re- 

 mote than any found in Eurasia, the oldest there exhumed 

 being from the middle miocene. Ameghino therefore claims 

 Patagonia as the cradle af the first Primates and of the im- 

 mediate precursors of Man. Nor does he hesitate in this 

 connection to add that in his opinion the very oldest relics 

 of man's activity have been found in the same district. 



We must, however, temper this enthusiasm by some hesi- 

 tancies. When Ameghino assigns these beds to the lower 

 eocene, he does so entirely on palaeontologic grounds. The 

 more cautious geologists are getting to rely less and less on 

 these, and to demand more and more stratigraphic testi- 

 mony. This is alone convincing. The native fauna of Aus- 

 tralia today is much older in type than that of Eurasia; and 

 similar instances no doubt e\isted in all ages of the world's 

 history. Moreover, the remains which Ameghino describes 

 are strictly American in type. His Anthropops perfectus, 

 although it had its teeth disposed in a semicircle, as in roan, 

 had nevertheless thirty-six teeth, as had all the American 

 monkeys, both recent and fossil. His Homunculus Pata- 

 gonicus was yet more Lemurian in type. The evidence is 

 far from adequate, therefore, to substantiate the daring in- 

 ductions which Ameghino draws from these finds. 

 The Question of the Celts. 



The latest contribution to the vexed question of the ethno- 

 ' graphic position of the Celts is from the pen of the veteran 

 anthropologist of Bonn, Professor Schaaffhausen. It is pub- 

 lished in the Festschrift zum Fiinfzigjahrigen Jitbildum, 

 des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden iin Rheinlande. It 

 includes a careful review of the classical authorities on the 

 Celts and Gauls; in which one is surprised to find a denial 

 that the bands who overran Italy in 393 B.C. were Celtic. 

 Surely the title of their chiefs, brennus, " king," is evidence 

 enough that they spoke a Celtic dialect. The professor is 

 also sadly out in attributing the North African blonds to 

 immigration from Europe. The blond type is essentially 



