( 365 ) 



XVII. — The Craniology, Racial Affinities, and Descent of the Aborigines of Tasmania. 

 By Principal Sir Wm. Turner, K.C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S. (With Three Plates.) 



(Read July 6, 1908. Issued separately October 16, 1908.) 

 CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Introduction 365 



Description of Tasmanian skulls .... 368 



Comparison with Tasmanian skulls in other col- 

 lections ........ 373 



Comparison of Tasmanians with other races . 381 



PAQK 



Racial affinities and descent of the Tasmanians . 385 



Sagittal contours ....... 394 



Bibliography 400 



Explanation of Plates and Figures in Text . . 403 



Introduction. 



The Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh contains a valuable collection 

 of the skulls of the aborigines of Tasmania, which has not as yet been described. As 

 the skulls of this now extinct people are limited in number in museums, and as the 

 opportunity of collecting additional specimens no longer exists, I have thought that an 

 account of their characters, a detailed statement of their measurements on lines similar 

 to those pursued in my previous craniological memoirs, and a comparison of their con- 

 formation with that of the Tasmanian skulls in other collections, as described by 

 previous writers, would be of interest to anthropologists, and might assist in the pre- 

 paration of a summary of their most constant features. Consideration of the affinities 

 and possible descent of the Tasmanians may also be appropriately included in the Memoir. 



The collection began to be formed about the end of the first quarter of the last 

 century. The first specimen in course of time — an adult male — was acquired by 

 Professor Alexander Monro tertius (xxx. 1). He referred to it as a skull from Van 

 Diemen's Land in his Elements of the Anatomy of the Human Body* in a chapter 

 entitled, " On the distinctions in the skull of the male and female, and of the distinctions 

 of the skulls of different nations." 



During the tenure of office of his successor, Professor John Goodsir, additional 

 Tasmanian skulls were acquired for the Anatomical Museum. One of these, an adult 

 male, is marked Van Diemen's Land, but with no other history (xxx. 5). Another, an 

 aged edentulous male (xxx. 4), was presented by C. Gray, Esq. The skull-cap had 

 been previously sawn off for the removal of the brain. The outer table of the parietal 

 bones, at and near the middle of the sagittal suture, showed a large eroded patch, and 



* Second edition, p. 196, Edinburgh, 1831. Monro tertius died in 1859. I became acquainted with him in 1854, 

 about which time he was having photographs made of the most interesting skulls in his collection. I possess a photo- 

 graph of the skull, No. 52, referred to in the text, marked Van Diemen's Land in Monro's handwriting. Three 

 measurements of the skull are given in Table ii., p. 204, of his Elements of Anatomy, but they are incorrectly 

 stated. 



TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. XLVI. PART II. (NO. 17). 57 



