CRANIOLOGY OF PEOPLE OF INDIA. 269 



palate in No. 103 was dolichuranic, but much wider in the other skulls. In two 

 specimens the hard palate was deeply arched, and in the adolescent skull the maxillo- 

 premaxillaiy suture was distinct. The teeth were for the most part lost : those present 

 were stained with betel. 



In No. 103 the sagittal and lambdoid sutures were ossified, in No. 105 all the 

 sutures were closed, in the remaining two they were open and relatively simple. Two 

 skulls had Wormian bones in the lambdoid. The parieto-squamous suture was well 

 marked : no skull had an epipteric bone. No. 103 had an indication of a 3rd condyl 

 and the lateral condyls were flattened. In the adolescent skull each external pterygoid 

 plate was continuous with a process from the spine of the sphenoid, and the conjoint 

 plate was pierced by two ptery go- spinous foramina. 



A feature in this series of skulls was the small range of variation in most of their 

 important dimensions, which pointed to a uniformity in type. The mean horizontal 

 circumference was 489*5 mm., the mean vertical transverse 407 '7, and the mean total 

 longitudinal 492 mm. The mean length of the cranium was 175 '5 mm., the mean 

 height 131, and the mean breadth 126 '5 mm.; the mean breadth-height index was 

 hypsistenocephalic. The height exceeded the breadth in all except in No. 105, in 

 which it was only I mm. less, and the mean vertical index was 74'6, metriocephalic. 

 In one the cephalic index was 75, in the others below that figure, and the mean was 

 72' 1, therefore distinctly dolichocephalic. 



The mean facial indices were as follows: gnathic index, 97 '3, orthognathous ; 

 maxillo-facial, 49*6, mesoprosopic ; nasal, 54*7, due to the high platyrhine index of 

 No. 103, but if that be excluded the mean nasal index, 51'1, was mesorhine ; orbital, 

 79, all microseme ; palato-maxillary, 115'7, faintly brachyuranic. The nasio-malar 

 index ranged from 1107 to 111 '8, and the mean was 111'4, and the projection of the 

 bridge of the nose beyond the plane of the malar borders of the orbits gave the face 

 a somewhat pro-opic profile. The intracranial capacity was low for male skulls, and 

 ranged from 1162 c.c. to 1240 c.c. : the mean was 1207'5 c.c. 



Bishop Caldwell discussed the question whether the Pariahs were pre-Dravidian 

 or belonged to the same race as the high-caste people of Southern India. Although 

 several reasons of weight can be assigned in support of the theory of their 

 pre-Dravidian origin, he inclined to the view that the lower castes in the Dravidian 

 provinces are of the same race as the higher. He adduces in support of this 

 position the essential unity of all the Dravidian dialects, and that there does not 

 seem to be anything in the features of the Pariahs or in the colour of the skin 

 which warrants the supposition that they are of a race different from their high- 

 caste neighbours. 



Mr Edgar Thurston published in 1896 and 1897 tables of comparative measure- 

 ments of living natives of Madras,* to which reference may be made for details, but 



* Madras Government Museum vol. i., Bulletin No. 4, p. 221, Madras, 1896 ; and vol. ii., Bulletin No. 1, Madras, 

 1897. 



TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN, VOL. XLV. PART II. (NO. 10). 37 



