DIOPTKOGRAPHIC TRACINGS OF FIFTY-TWO TASMANIAN 



CRANIA. 



In a communication to the Royal Society of Victoria, in March, 1909, since 

 published in Vol. XXII. of the Proceedings of that Society, we recorded the finding 

 of 42 Tasmanian crania hitherto unknown to the world of science. 



Prior to January, 1909, " the crania catalogued in museums as Tasmanian, 

 which have been studied and described by anthropologists, and the measurements of 

 which have been more or less fully recorded, are 79 in number." — (Turner.) 



As a result of our investigations in Tasmania during the months of January 

 and February, 1909, we have been enabled to add to this extremely limited number 

 an additional 42, as is duly set forth in our preliminary communication to the Royal 

 Society of Victoria already mentioned, and also in the AnatomiscJier Anzeiger, 

 Vol. 35, 1909. 



Of the 42 crania discovered by ourselves, some were in the hands of private 

 owners. Others were excavated by us in the early part of 1909, but all are owned by 

 private individuals, who cannot be induced to part with them for proper scientific 

 storage in a museum ; and it seemed to us then — an opinion which we still hold — that on 

 the demise of the present proprietors, this valuable scientific material must inevitably 

 be either lost or dispersed. 



With the dual object of rescuing these crania from the fate which seems to await 

 them, and of making the material available to craniologists all the world over, we have 

 reproduced in life size dioptrographic tracings of these skulls in four normse, namely, 

 norma lateralis, norma facialis, norma verticalis, and norma occipitalis. If the mandible 

 were present, that has also been drawn from a facial and a lateral point of view. The 

 present work consists, therefore, of the drawings of 41 of the 42 crania discovered by 

 ourselves, and of 11 of the 79 crania referred to by Turner as having already been 

 described prior to 1909. These 11 crania are 11 of the 12 described by 

 Harper and Clarke, in the Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 

 for 1897. The twelfth skull has since disappeared. The remaining 11 are now 

 safely housed in the Tasmanian Museum, Hobart. 



The technique was as follows : — The crania were oriented in the Frankfort 

 plane in the Kubuskraniophor, and then drawn by means of Martin's dioptrograph 

 in the four normse specified. If the mandible were present that also was included. 

 In some instances the crania were so much damaged that it was not possible to record 

 all four normse, and in one instance the skull was so completely distorted by the action 



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