CRANIOLOGY OF THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 379 



given the mean internal capacity also in cubic inches. He stated the mean of eleven 

 Tasmanian skulls, seven males and four females, to be 1197 grammes, equal to 82"8 cubic 

 inches ; as the mean capacity in the males is put at 1230 grammes, the equivalent 

 would be 1392 c.c, which is materially higher than the average amount obtained by 

 myself and the other observers above referred to. The higher average is probably due 

 to the fact that the sand which filled the male skull (No. 1761) is said to have weighed 

 83 oz. avoir., equalling 2355 grammes, which, when expressed in cubic centimetres, 

 gives an abnormal capacity. 



In the Tasmanians, as in other races, the mean capacity of the female crania is dis- 

 tinctly below that of the males. I had only one female skull, which measured 1260 c.c. ; 

 De Quatrefages and Hamy found three skulls in the Paris museums to have a mean 

 capacity 1170 c.c. In Flower's series the range in seven crania was from 1075 to 

 1350 c.c, with the mean 1175 c.c. ; in Harper and Clarke's series five skulls ranged 

 from 1050 to 1135, with the mean 1089 ; four specimens in the Oxford collection ranged 

 from 1060 to 1200, with the mean of 1135 c.c. Barnard Davis gave in his memoir the 

 mean capacity of four females as 1100 grammes; but in his work on the osteology of 

 the Tasmanians he places it as 1103 c.c. In both sexes, therefore, the mean is markedly 

 below the European standard, and the skulls as regards their capacity fall into the 

 microcephalic group. 



Face. — The configuration and proportions of the face as they have been described in 

 the specimens under review may now be considered. The projection and mass of the 

 glabella and supraciliary ridges and the deep depression of the nasion constituted 

 marked characters. The nasal bones were short and narrow. The bridge of the nose 

 was feeble and the profile outline was strongly concave. The anterior nares were wide 

 absolutely, and also relatively to the height of the nose, which was short ; the nasal 

 index in fifty specimens measured ranged from 49 '1 to 69, and the mean was 5 8 '8, 

 markedly platyrhine. The nasio- alveolar diameter, which corresponded with the length 

 of the superior maxillae, was short, which occasioned the short, vertical diameter of the 

 face as a whole, the short nose, as well as the low vertical diameter of the orbits ; though 

 the massive supraciliary ridges and superior orbital borders contributed also to diminish 

 the height of these chambers. The orbital index in fifty-one specimens ranged from 

 667 to 91 "9, and the mean was 77 "8, which established a low orbital, or microseme 

 index for the Tasmanian skulls. 



The forward projection of the upper jaw varied in the individual specimens, and 

 the eye could recognise some in which the orthognathic character was evident ; several 

 were prognathic, and others were intermediate in the degree of projection. When 

 the degree of projection was estimated by the proportion between the basi-nasal and 

 basi-alveolar diameters, the former being regarded as = 100, and an alveolar or gnathic 

 index computed according to the method of Flower, the index in thirty-four 

 specimens, recorded by different observers, ranged from 96'9 to 113'2, and the mean of 

 the series was'103"6, prognathic, therefore in accordance with Flower's classification. 



