KEPOET OF THE SECKETAEY. 13 



added very valuable material to the National Museum series of 

 mammals, birds, fishes, reptiles, and amphibians, land and fresh- 

 water moUusks, flowering plants and ferns, and specimens of micro- 

 scopic plant and animal life. 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES IN PERU. 



During the past year a second trip was made to Peru by Dr. 

 Hrdlicka in continuation of the brief but very interesting researches 

 made by him in that country in 1910. The principal objects of the 

 trip were the mapping out as far as possible of the anthropological 

 distributions of the prehistoric Peruvian, more particularly the coast 

 people; the determination of the physical type of the important 

 Nasca group of people, which represent one of the highest American 

 cultures; further inquiry as to man's antiquity on the west coast of 

 South America; and the extension of Dr. Hrdlicka's researches on 

 pre-Columbian pathology. Important collections were made for the 

 National Museum, as well as for the Panama-California Exposition 

 at San Diego. A very perceptible change for the worse was observed 

 in the state of preservation of the ancient remains, both skeletal and 

 archeological. Dr. Hrdlicka reports: 



The major part of the old population of the extensive coast region were 

 found everywhere to belong to the brachycephalic type, intimately related to 

 the Maya-Zapotec type in the north. The Nasca people were one of the purest 

 groups belonging to this type. Wherever they lived these people of the Peru- 

 vian coast were wont to practice, more or less, the anteroposterior head deforma- 

 tion. They have spread along the valleys to the foothills of the Cordillera, and 

 have probably in some instances, penetrated into the mountains. Meanwhile, 

 however, they became in many though not all localities more or less mixed, or 

 rather mingled, with dolicho or near dolichocephalic elements which came from 

 or across the mountains. 



As to man's antiquity, the results were wholly negative; no trace of man of 

 geological age, nor even of an ancient man of the present epoch, were discovered. 



The density of the pre-Columbian population was in some localities greater, 

 in others probably less, than at the present time. 



As to pathology, the people of the mountains were found to have been much 

 healthier than those of the coast. The most common disease leaving its traces 

 on the bones in ancient Peru was arthritis. In strictly pre-Columbian ceme- 

 teries there was no rachitis, syphilis, tuberculosis, or cancer. Wounds of skull 

 were very common. In the mountains numerous interesting instances of tre- 

 panation were discovered. 



Further explorations in the mountainous parts of Peru are urgent. 



RESEARCHES UNDER THE HODGKINS FUND. 



As mentioned in my last report, a limited grant was made from the 



Hodgkins fund for carrying on certain observations on nocturnal 



radiation at various altitudes. The results of this research, as also 



of several other lines of investigation in connection therewith, pro- 



17489"— SM 1913 2 



