1878. ] Anthropology. : 405 
Nearly every afternoon is appropriated to a discourse by some 
eminent savant on topics illustrated by the collections in the 
museum. 
The German Emperor has presented to the ethnographical 
department of the Royal Museum at Berlin, a collection of 
weapons from Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, Flores, Amboyna 
and other islands, made by Herr Erdmann, German Consul at 
Samarang, Java. 
On Friday, February 15th, the Rev. W. E. Cousins read a 
paper before the London Philological Society on Malagasy, the 
language of Madagascar, a short sketch is given in Zhe Academy 
for March 2d. 
Dr. Stuart Eldridge sends a copy of his pamphlet on the crania 
of the Botans of Formosa, read before the Asiatic Society of 
Japan, March 14th, 1877. The first few pages are occupied with 
a résumé of the science of craniology. The researches of Dr. 
Eldridge were made on four skulls. The Botans, or Motans, are 
one of the aboriginal tribes of Formosa, having a fine physical 
development, and distinguished by the following characteristics : 
They are, courageous, frank and impressible; straight haired; 
complexion varied, but always of a brown tint, never black; 
having some knowledge of agriculture, cultivating tobacco, root- 
crops and rice; domesticating buffaloes, pigs, dogs and poultry; 
living under a patriarchal organization; fond of the chase; having 
some slight knowledge of certain arts, and a rude form of relig- 
gion, the cultus of which is, at least to some extent, in the hands 
of priestesses who are highly reverenced. There are no signs of 
artificial distortion in any of the skulls; when held at arm’s 
length the malar bones are visible on either side, and all are 
_. dolichocephalic. In all, the upper edges of the zygomata are 
somewhat convex, the temporal ridges are strongly marked, the 
processes are highly developed, the mastoids are about the 
average, the external auditory foramina are oval, the arch of the 
palate is low and flat, the external opening of the nose is large, 
the frontal sinuses are small, and the ethmoidal ridge of 
frontal large and prominent. They are almost uniformly orthog- 
nathous. The orbits in Nos. 1 and 3 are somewhat square in — 
outline, while in No. 2 the orbit is elliptical, the axis being 
directed downward and outward. The occipital foramina of Nos. 
I and 4 are rather more oval than common, those of Nos. 2 and 
3 being about normal in shape. The sutures of Nos. 1, 2 and 4 
are distinct and ununited. In No. 3 all the sutures save the 
Squamous and a part of the lambdoidal are obliterated. The 
pamphlet closes with a tabular view of the measurements of the 
Skulls according to the scheme of depen from which a few are 
extracted: Length 7, 6.95, 7.15, 7.02 inches for the four skulls 
respectively; breadth 5.45, 5.35, 5-38, 5-28; height 5.30, 5-27, 
_ 9-52, 5:26; cephalic index 78, .77, 75, 75) facial angle 76.3 o 
805°, 84.3°; capacity 84.82, 91.34, 83.43, 75-90 cubic inches. 
