FROM THE NEW HEBRIDES. CAMERON. 411 



have produced any freak effects in the case of the other 

 cranial indices. 



The Nasal Index. — The study of the nasal index yielded 

 some interesting results. Some anthropologists emphasise 

 very strongly the importance of this index as a criterion of 

 racial origin. It is found that the lower the type of cranium 

 the higher is this index. That is to say, the nasal aperture 

 of the skull is broadest in the lower races. Applying this 

 idea to the two skulls in question it was found that the 

 nasal index in No. 1 skull was 50.4, and in No. 2 as high as 

 54.9. Thus the latter was definitely platyrrhine, being 

 above 53, and the other almost leptorrhine. Another sig- 

 nificant fact to be recorded was that the index in No. 2 skull 

 practically corresponded to the Melanesian average of 

 55 (23) -vyhiist the other approximted to the Polynesian index 

 of 48.'^^' Thus the nasal index, taken in conjunction with 

 the cephalic index and the index of height, again demon- 

 strates the marked racial inferiority of No. 2 skull, and 

 certainly suggests that there must be a strong admixture 

 of Melanesian and Polynesian types in the New Hebrides, 

 It is rather remarkable that two skulls collected at random 

 should indicate such marked racial differences. 



The Alveolar or Gnathic Index. — The alveolar index 

 proved to be even more significant than the preceding; for 

 in No. 1 skull it was found to be 102, while in No. 2 it reached 

 the high figure of 106.7. The latter represents the most 

 extreme condition of prognathism the wTiter has ever met 

 with. It certainly greatly exceeds the average of the aborig- 

 inal Australian of today which is supposed to represent the 

 lowest type of skull extant, and is, according to Flower . 

 jQ4^(25) though some anthropologists do not place it so higl 

 as that. For example Duckworth'^^* gives it as 101.1. In 

 any case an investigation of the alveolar index of these two 

 skulls indicated that both were of the Melanesian type, 

 though No. 1 approximated to the Polynesian average index 



