778 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



sutures are longer, not depressed — 10 mm. on left, 12 on right. The 

 tympanic ring is thin: there is a posterior condyloid hole on the left; 

 only a blind pit on the right, and a larger jugular hole on the right 

 than on the left : the right external pterygoicl plate is prolonged to 

 the foramen ovale ; the nasal bones are small, depressed, not dilating 

 below. This skull, therefore, belonged to a young male, probably 

 about twenty. 



Dr. Abraham has kindly given me the folloTving note concerning 

 the skull from Guadalcanar, in the ITuseum of the College of Sur- 

 geons : — 



" This specimen was presented to the lEuseum of the Eoyal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons in Ireland by Sta^-Surgeon P. Keelan, E.jS". It was 

 probably the cranium of a young male, as evidenced by the compara- 

 tive thinness of the bones, the slight development of the muscular 

 ridges and fossa, and the non-ankylosis of the sutures, especially in 

 the case of the spheno- occipital. The teeth which remain in this 

 specimen are, moreover, those of a young subject, with perfect 

 crowns, and with the last molar on the left side not yet irrupted. 

 The premolars, the left canine, and the incisors are wanting; the con- 

 dition of the alveoli indicates that their extraction was post mortem. 

 The upper canine of the right side presents a veiy remarkable abnor- 

 mality, its growth being vertically upwards instead of downwards. 

 The crown of the tooth is situated below the margin of the orbit, 

 reaching above the level of the inferior orbital foramen. By pressure 

 it has caused the absorption of part of the outer face of the superior 

 maxilla, so that in the diy skull it has its outer enamel surface quite 

 exposed. In the alveolar margin of the jaw there is no corresponding 

 socket ; and there is no evidence of a retained milk canine. The four 

 functional teeth, which have been left in the upper jaw, are stained 

 with betel nut. Xo lower jaw came with the specimen, having been, 

 no doubt, disjointed and utilized as a bracelet. The basi- and ex-occipi- 

 tal portions of the base of the cranium have been knocked out, probably, 

 as Dr. Keelan, in his letter accompanying the specimen, remarks, to 

 get at the brain for cannibal purposes. From the serious wounds 

 which are to be seen on the vault of the skull, and on the left temple, 

 it appears that the individual must have required a great deal of 

 killing. Dr. Keelan thinks it 'a case of death in fight from tomahawk 

 wounds . . . the victim must have been in flight, closely followed. 

 The sliced wound was probably first inflicted; next, the deep one near 

 the vertex; the remainder — apparently down-cuts — when the victim, 

 had fallen to the earth on his right side.' 



" In general configuration this cranium does not difier much from 

 the long, rather narrow and high Melanesian type ; but in certain 

 points there seem to be considerable differences — for instance, in the 

 nasal and orbital indices, as seen below. 



