ae a ‘ 
W. J. MeGee—Crania of the Mound-builders. 459 
disagree ;” as when Col. Foster, at one time president of this 
Association, declared that the only cranium figured by Squier 
and Davis in their great work on the “ Ancient Monuments of 
the Mississippi Valley” as representative of the cranial struc- 
ture of the Mound-builders, did not belong to that race at all. 
Any observations throwing light on the question of the rela- 
tions of these crania will therefore be of practical value. 
The writer has made a pretty thorough study of the arche- 
ology of northeastern Towa, and has examined several skulls 
unearthed in that region, as well as some from Wisconsin, IIli- 
nois and Kentucky. The total number of Mound-builders’ 
crania examined will not, however, exceed fifty or seventy-five; 
and a part uf these were fragmentary. Hence the observations 
cannot be considered to afford a perfectly reliable guide in the 
determination of crania, and too great weight should not be 
attached to them until verified by authentic cases of a similar 
nature from other quarters. At present they have but a pro- 
visional significance. The structural peculiarity which has 
n found to be a more trustworthy distinguishing feature 
than differences in the capacity or general contour of the skulls, 
relative length and breadth, thickness of walls, or condition 
and state of preservation of the bone, is.the greater relative 
size of the posterior molars or “ wisdom teeth” in both maxil- 
laries of the Mound-builders’ crania than in those of the recent 
red race. Measurements have not been made to illustrate this 
difference in relative size, principally because the preparation 
of this paper was occasioned by the discussion following the 
reading on yesterday morning of an archeological paper in 
this section, since which time specimens from which dimensions 
could be taken have not been accessible. 
Aside from the simple difference in relative size of the pos- 
terior and anterior molars, it seems that the ‘‘ wisdom teeth” 
equally 
some 
a from 
ested 
ylosis of the sutures permitting frac- 
