Contributions to the Anthropology of tlie East Greenlanders. \Q\ 



of both sexes and on 15 skulls. Before I pass on to a statement ot 

 the results which have been obtained in this way, I must first try 

 to account for the divergence which exists between the index of 

 the skulls and the heads of living persons. As will appear from 

 the special investigation of the skulls to follow below, their 

 average index is 721 (maximum 780, minimum 690), that is to 

 say they are pronouncedly dolichocephalic. If, for convenience, 

 we consider the two sexes under one head, the average index for 

 the 91 men and women measured on the East coast is 76'4 (maxi- 

 mum 842, minimum 69-9), that is to say larger by 43 than the 

 index of the skulls, and the living population thus turns out to be 

 mesaticephalic. The question now is whether this difference is to 

 be regarded as evidence that the skulls have belonged to a more 

 dolichocephalous, and perhaps older, tribe than that now living, 

 or whether it should be ascribed to special circumstances in the 

 measuring. In this connection it may be premised that the skulls 

 brought back by the "Second German Expedition" and described ^) 

 by Pansch had an average index of 73"3, while Ryder's male 

 skulls had an average of 750, his female skulls 758. 



Quite apart from the intrinsic improbability of the first alter- 

 native, there seem to be no grounds for doubting that the cephalic 

 index of the living East Greenlanders is considerably greater 

 than that of their skulls, notably on account of the powerful 

 development of their masticating muscles, of which the muse, tem- 

 poralis alone might easily increase the latitudinal diameter by the 

 few millimeters in question. It was formerly regarded as a fixed 

 rule that the measurement of living heads always gave a larger 

 cephalic index than that of the skulls, though scientists were not 

 agreed as to the exact extent of the difference. 



Even the more careful investigations of recent times do not 

 seem to have settled the question; hence it seems advisable to keep 

 the two things quite apart, while at the same time bearing in mind 

 that the difference in question must naturally be greater in a 

 vigorous primitive race like the East Greenlanders, than in the 

 population of European towns, which latter have furnished the 

 materials for most of these investigations, where persons emaciated 

 by sickness must often have been the subjects of examination. 



It is not possible to show a proportion between the local variations 

 of cephalic index corresponding to that which was found in the case of 

 the stature; but as the differences in this respect are nevertheless 

 by no means inconsiderable, I shall indicate them in a similar manner. 



1) Zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt II. 1874, p. 147. 



xxxix. 11 



