AsBraHaAmM—On a Collection of Crania. 85 
above, there can be no doubt as to the non-protrudence of the facial 
bones ; and we may certainly consider the index in each case to be not 
much over 950. Crania which have an alveolar index above 1030 are 
considered by anthropologists to be prognathous, between 980 and 
1030 to be mesognathous, and below 980 to be orthognathous. These 
two crania are therefore extremely orthognathous; and, indeed, are 
more so than the ordinary run of European crania, for which, from the 
measurement of 184 examples, Professor Flower has assigned an aver- 
age index of 962. The cranium C, on the other hand, shows an 
approach to the ordinary negro type in the development of the face ; 
but even here the prognathism is so little marked that it may be con- 
sidered to be mesognathic. There is no means of judging as to the 
gnathism of D and E; but from the outline of the forehead I should 
say it would be orthognathic in either case. In looking over the Cata- 
logue of Professor Flower’s collection, I find that the lowest alveolar 
index is 970, and is given for the cranium of a male native of the 
Gold Coast. Dr. Bernard Davis, in his Thesaurus Craniorum, men- 
tions that one or two of his West African skulls are exceedingly 
European in form; but he gives no measurements by which we can 
determine their alveolar indices. Burton, Winwood Reade and others 
have spoken of the ‘‘beauty”’ of some of the African women, by 
which, I suppose, they mean, among other things, an approach to an 
orthognathic type; but until the present time I am not aware that 
any such Kuropean-shaped skulls have been actually brought forward 
and measured. This peculiar formation for negro skulls at once gives 
origin to a suspicion that perhaps we are considering the skulls of a 
mixed race; but, apart from the history, the other measurements indi- 
cate them to be veritably of negroes, with some of the racial charac- 
teristics most strongly marked. The doliocephaly, for instance, is 
extreme. While Professor Flower’s average cephalic index for negroes 
is 736, the average for these specimens is only 718; and the two, A 
and B, which are so orthognathous, are the most dolicocephalic of all, 
even more so than my three old negro skulls, which gave an average 
index of 706. Similarly, the nasal indices show that the negro charac- 
ter, in the respect of being platyrhine, is extreme—the average figure 
given by Professor Flower for negroes being 568, while these have 
indices of 596, 612, and 551, respectively. 
The cranial capacities, measured by means of rape-seed, are also in 
the first four specimens indicative of low type. In Professor Flower’s 
estimate the negro skulls appear to be of mesocephalic capacity, the 
average internal contents measuring 1388 cc.; only my specimen KE, 
which is doubtfully of the Cabenda tribe, is really mesocephalic ; the 
others, and especially those labelled B, C, and D, are exceedingly mi- 
crocephalic—in fact, exceptionally so. 
Without now attempting to give a detailed description of each of 
these crania, I may cursorily remark upon some of the more striking 
of their individual peculiarities. 
In A (Pl. IV., A and A a), although the sagittal and other sutures 
