THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 441 



constricted part at the middle they were 4 mm. wide and expanded to 7 mm. near 

 the free end. The surface was flattened, had no trace of a keel, and approximated in 

 direction to the plane of the forehead. 



In the young gorilla the nasals, partially fused, were 47 mm. long and only 3 mm. 

 wide at the constricted middle part, but expanded to 8 mm. near the fronto-nasal suture, 

 and to 1 7 mm. near the free end, where the mesial part of the right nasal formed a 

 separate ossicle (PI. IT. fig. 7). In the adults the nasals varied in approximate length 

 from 45 to 56 mm. ; they were fused in the middle line and marked by a distinct keel 

 in the upper two-thirds, which faded away towards the free end. In two only of the 

 gibbons (Hylobates) could a fronto-nasal suture be seen, and in them the nasals were 

 6 and 9 mm. long respectively. Both the adults and the young had short, flattened 

 nasal bones, fused together and destitute of a mesial keel. " 



The nasals in the large anthropoids were characterised by their length and slender 

 form as compared with man. In the Australians, which I have measured, they varied 

 in mesial length from 16 to 26 mm. in a straight line, and in greatest breadth from 

 6 to 13 mm., whilst the mean length was 20 '5 and the mean breadth was 10 '4 mm. 

 In the Tasmanians the length varied from 13 to 19 mm., and the greatest breadth from 

 9 to 10 mm., the mean length was 16 mm. and the mean breadth was 9 "5. In 

 Europeans, again, as I have found in Scottish skulls, the length varied from 21 to 

 30 mm. and the breadth from 10 to 14 mm., whilst the mean length was 25*4 and 

 the mean breadth 11 '7 mm. The osseous part of the nose constituted in the white 

 races a more prominent feature than in the black races. The constriction in the middle 

 and the attenuated upper end of the apes were not seen in the human nasal bones. 



Except in the gorilla, where an imperfect keel was present, the anthropoid nasals 

 were not keeled mesially, and the nose was flattened and had no bridge. This condition 

 also existed in the black races, in whom the profile outline of the nasal bones was 

 concave upwards and forwards, and the curve was continuous with that of the glabellar 

 convexity. In Europeans, again, the nasals sprang abruptly forwards and downwards 

 from the fronto-nasal suture, and possessed the keel-like bridge which made the nose a 

 characteristic prominent feature. Even in the infantile skulls of Europeans the nasal 

 profile was, as development proceeded, set at an angle with the plane of the 

 forehead. 



Klaatsch in his memoir expressed the opinion that a great difference existed in the 

 formation of the external nose in man compared with anthropoid apes, in the latter of 

 which, he thought, the external nose corresponded with only the lower portion of the 

 human organ. He stated that the superior borders of the anthropoid nasals were on 

 the same plane as the internal angular processes of the frontals. Further, that the upper 

 limit of the external nose in anthropoids corresponded with the middle of their nasals, 

 at a point named by him rhinion (which apparently signified the constriction de- 

 scribed in the above paragraphs), and not with their superior borders. 



From my observations on the skulls of anthropoid apes, the nasals, in order to reach 



