DIOPTROGRAPHIC TRACINGS IN THREE NORM.E OF 

 NINETY AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL CRANIA. 



The very favourable reception which has been awarded to our Atlas of 

 " Dioptrographic Tracings of Fifty-two Tasmanian Crania " by both the scientific 

 press and by private individuals, has induced us to undertake a similar publication 

 for the Australian aboriginal. We are, of course, aware that Australian aboriginal 

 crauia are more numerously represented in museums outside Australia than are 

 Tasmanian, and that therefore on the mere ground of rarity this publication cannot 

 have the same value as our Tasmanian Atlas. Were this the only justification for 

 the publication of such an Atlas as the present one, we should obviously not 

 have undertaken it, but happily it is not. 



In the first place, it must be remembered, that the whole of the crania dealt 

 with in the present work are located in Melbourne, and are not, therefore, accessible 

 to any scientist in any other part of the world except at the expense of a long sea 

 voyage, with the consequent expenditure of both time and money. 



Secondly, the Commonwealth Government of Australia has now prohibited, or 

 is about to do so, the exportation of Australian aboriginal osteological material, and 

 the source of supply to museums outside Australia will therefore probably be cut off, 

 except by processes of exchange. 



Thirdly, the reviewers of our Tasmanian Atlas, in such reputable journals as 

 Nature, the Lancet, the British Medical Journal, U Anthropologic, and others, have 

 almost unanimously expressed the keenest satisfaction at this material being collected 

 and made available before it is too late. 



Apart, therefore, from any question of mere rarity, it seems to us that we have 

 here three sufficiently cogent reasons for the publication of the present series of 

 Australian aboriginal crania. 



In view of certain criticism which was levelled at our similar Atlas of 

 Tasmanian crania to the effect that " the scientific value of the publication would 

 have been greatly enhanced if the authors had included the results of the elaborate 

 study they have made of this new collection of Tasmanian crania," the object of this, 

 as of our former work, must not be misunderstood. We are solely desirous of 

 making available to our scientific colleagues elsewhere, material of a valuable 

 character, and which is otherwise inaccessible, and which runs the further risk of 

 being lost in the process of time unless so collected. We do not desire to impose 



