334 PRINCIPAL SIR WILLIAM TURNER ON 



already referred to (p. 329) careful drawings of the medulla, the cortex and the 

 cuticular covering in several races have been reproduced. 



Tasmanians. — Opportunities of examining the form and structure of the hair in 

 this now extinct race have seldom occurred. The only references which I have found 

 are — (a) statement by Topinard * that the hair was flattened laterally and was ovoid 

 or elliptical in transverse section, and that the hair index was 60, which was modified 

 by Latteux to 63 ; (b) Sydney Hickson described t the hair as light golden 

 brown in colour, curly, very flat in transverse section, the average diameter of the 

 curl being 5 mm. ; the Tasmanian hair, he said, was finer than that of the Papuan, 

 but not so fine as in the Andamanese ; (c) Friedenthal, in a recently published 

 paper,J recorded the dimensions of a small sample of hair which Professor von 

 Luschan had supplied to him. The sample consisted of twelve hairs from 15 to 

 91 mm. long, without roots but with their natural tips. The hairs, he said, were of 

 reddish-brown colour and were curled comparable with the hair of Papuans. They 

 were not cylindrical and the breadth in one diameter exceeded the depth in another ; 

 a typical breadth was 0'095 mm., a typical depth 0*065 mm. If the breadth or 

 greatest transverse diameter is regarded as = 100, the hair index is about 68. 

 Comparative measurements of the hair in other races are given by Friedenthal, 

 the mean maximum breadth being as follows : Europeans 0'102 mm., American 

 Indians 0'09 mm., Chinese 0"099 mm., Japanese 0'105 mm., Bushmen 0'0773 mm., 

 and Bantu Hereros 0*083 mm. 



My observations on the form and structure of the hair of the head in Tasmanian 

 aborigines were made on samples from two men and the old woman Truganini, 

 also on some hairs of Mrs Cochrane Smith of mixed blood (pp. 310-311). In the 

 aborigines the hair was black, or brownish black. The hairs obviously tapered to a 

 fine point at the tip, which however had been frequently cut. The measurements 

 were made with a screw micrometer eye-piece. In one male the root sheath had 

 been drawn along with some of the hairs from the follicles ; the breadth of the root 

 hair, as well as the shaft was taken ; in this specimen the short hairs referred to on 

 p. 311 were also measured. Measurements of the clippings from the other male 

 and from Truganini were also taken : — 



Male, maximum breadth of root 



hair 



00875 



mm. 



>> !> 



, shaft 



)> 



0-0700 



)> 



,, clipping of hair 



> . )> 



>) 



00950 



5> 



>) >) 



tip 



j> 



0-0125 



)> 



Truganini 



, shaft 



>j 



0-0575 



)1 



Short hair in male 



, root 



jj 



0-0725 



)) 



i) >) 



, shaft 



>> 



0-0675 



)) 



!) )) 



tip 



>> 



00200 



)) 



* Elements d'Anthrop. ge'ne'rale, pp. 278, 280, 1885. t In Ling Roth's Aborigines of Tasmania, p. 226. 



+ « Vergleich von Tasmanier-kopf haaren mit den Kopfhaaren anderer Menschenrassen," Zeitschr.fiir Ethnologie, 

 45. Jahrgang, Heft 1, p. 49, 1913. 



