CRANIA FROM THE MOUNDS OF FLORIDA. 411 



Choanal measurements. These are taken with the sliding rule. I have 

 placed importance upon them from the fact that they are found to be exceedingly 

 variable. 



Malar widths. The upper malar width is the length of the malo-frontal 

 union in the orbit, the lower is the distance from the free border of the orbit to the 

 sphenomaxillary fissure. They are taken with the sliding rule. Malar widths 

 indicate the great variation in the degree that the bone enters into the composition 

 of the orbito-temporal septum (outer wall of orbit). 



Width of external pterygoid plate. This is taken with sliding rule from the 

 border of the plate to the bottom of the pterygoid fossa. The measurement is 

 valuable in recording the extraordinary differences in the size of the plate. 



Length of pyramidal process. This is taken from the union of the process 

 with the internal pterygoid plate to the tip of the process. The contrasts in the 

 length are striking (see p. 368.) 



(2). The prominence of the supra-orbital ridge and of chamosprosopy . In Blu- 

 menbach Decades (markedly in PL XXXVIII, America, Illinois, and in less degree 

 PL IX, Indi- American), one notes the prominence of the glabella and the superciliary 

 ridges. — Wilson 1 claims to have been the first to observe this prominence of the 

 superciliary ridges in the crania of North American Indians. It is not mentioned 

 by Morton. 2 From a list of seven skulls in Meig's catalogue exhibiting the peculi- 

 arity, one only is that of a North American Indian, 3 namely, the skull (No. 1,512) 

 from the Scioto Mound cited by Wilson (1. a). — G. Busk 4 refers to a skull of a 

 Tennessee aborigine in which the "supra-orbital prominence" is "most marked." 

 The skull is note-worthy also for the retention of the interfrontal suture. — R. Vir- 

 chow, 5 out of eleven skulls from North America, describes the swelling in two only. 

 The reference is scant and occurs in the text without comment. — Thus, while Wilson 

 detects the prominent riclge as not infrequent in North American crania, Morton is 

 silent on the subject, and Meigs alludes to it incidentally only and finds it at least 

 as frequent in other races. Wilson's attitude is probably due to the discovery of 

 the Neanderthal skull in 1857, in which the supra-orbital ridges are of enormous size, 

 and led craniologists to identify the character in extant varieties of man. Schaaf- 

 hausen, 6 after describing the Neanderthal specimen, sought for this ridge in other 

 crania. Wilson and Busk were probably led to make similar observations. Schaaf- 

 hausen concludes, since the " prominence of the supra-orbital region occurs most 

 frequently in the crania of barbarous and especially of northern races, to some of 

 which a high antiquity must be assigned, it may be fairly supposed that a conforma- 

 tion of this kind represents the faint vestiges of a primitive type." The occurrence 

 of the prominent ridges in the crania of North American Indians is much more fre- 

 quent than one would suppose from the above statements. It is indeed a common 



Prehistoric Man, 1862, II, 266. 



2 Crania Americana. 



3 The others are as follows : Celt, Norwegian, Finn, Calmuck, Esquimaux. 



4 Nat. Hist. Rev., I, 1862, 174, PI. V., fig. 1. 

 Crania Ethnica Americana, 1892. 

 6 Muller's Archiv, 1858, 453. 



