82 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
XIX.—On a Cotrection or CraNIA AND OTHER Opsects oF ErHnoto- 
GICAL INTEREST, FROM THE SourH-West Coast or Arrica. (With 
Plates IV. and V.). By P. 8. Asranam, M. A., B.Sc., F.R.C.S., 
&c.; Curator of the Museum, Royal College of Surgeons in Ive- 
land. 
[Read, February 28, 1881.] 
Tue interesting collection which I have the honour of laying before 
the Royal Irish Academy this evening was made by Dr. Wm. Allan, 
Assistant-Surgeon in the Colonial Service, in the course of the year 
1880; and was recently presented by him to the Museum of the Royal 
College of Surgeons in Ireland. As will be seen directly, many of the 
specimens are of interest as illustrating the stage at which the natives 
of South-western Africa have arrived in practical arts and manufac- 
tures. It is, however, especially to the crania that I wish to direct 
attention; for they seem to me to present certain characters which 
sharply differentiate them from the generality of negro skulls, and to 
be, therefore, of considerable importance from an anthropological pomt 
of view. I propose to commence with the consideration of these skulls, 
and, after giving the scanty history which I possess as to the tribe to 
which they belong, &c., I shall enumerate a few of their more impor- 
tant craniometric indices and measurements, and shall then compare 
them with skulls of average negro type. Five of the specimens, viz., 
those marked A, B, C, D, E, once formed part of the mechanism of 
natives of the Cabenda district, which is situated to the north of the 
mouth of the River Congo. The specimen F belonged to a member of 
the Congo tribe; and, as will shortly be seen, differs in a marked man- 
ner from the Cabenda crania. 
As far as I am aware, there are no skulls of Cabenda negroes in 
the three principal British Collections, viz., in that of the Army Medi- 
cal Department at Netley, in the Hunterian Museum, or in the late 
Dr. Bernard Davis’ Collection, which is now also at the Royal College 
of Surgeons in London.1 
A and B belonged to males of adult age; C is also the cranium of 
an adult male, probably of the same tribe; D is the calvaria of a Ca- 
benda woman, to judge from its general configuration, and from the 
small development of the muscular ridges and processes; E is the cal- 
varia of a male, most likely of the same district ; and F is the cranium 
of a Congo man, approximately of middle age. It is most unfortunate 
1 According to Dr. Allan, the Cabendas are the most intelligent negroes to be 
found along the coast, and are much preferred as servants by the European settlers. 
Their physical and mental superiority was alluded to by Mr. Winwood Reade in 
his work on ‘‘ Savage Africa,’’ in which he mentions the fact that they, together 
with ‘‘ Krumen,’’ were seldom taken as slaves, when that commodity was a staple 
one on the West Coast. Dr. Allan informs me that the obtaining of these bones 
was a matter of some difficulty and risk, for many Africans, not unlike the natives 
of some more civilised countries, have a superstitious horror of meddling with the 
remains of their countrymen. 
