A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF THE SCOTTISH SKULL. 415 



In the comparison instituted by Klaatsch between the Australian specimen and 

 a European skull he pointed out as a feature of the former that the bregma angle 

 was greater than the basion angle, while the relationship in the European skull was 

 the reverse. The result of the examination of these angles in the 100 Scottish 

 skulls is that the mean bregma angle is greater than the basion angle, and so the 

 Scottish skull agrees with the Australian (of Klaatsch) in this respect. The 

 Tasmanian mean basion angle, on the other hand, is slightly greater than the mean 

 bregma angle, and thus shows a relationship which is that figured in the European 

 specimen of Klaatsch. 



In Berry's series of Australian skulls, 90 in number, I found that the bregma angle 

 varied from 98° to 120°, with a mean value of 106'94°. The standard deviation was 

 3 '69. This angle is thus in a series of Australian skulls lower in value on the average 

 than the basion angle, which showed a mean value of 10775°, so that the opposite 

 relationship obtains from what is found in the Scottish skull and the reverse of what 

 Klaatsch demonstrates in his Kraniomorphologie und Kraniotrigonometrie. 



The size of the bregma compared with the basion angle in any specimen largely 

 depends on the respective distances of the basion and bregma from the glabella- 

 lambda horizontal, a high value for the bregma angle being predicted by a long low 

 vault which is a feature of the Australian skull. Apparently the relationship 

 pointed out by Klaatsch, in comparing the Australian and European, is by no 

 means constant, as in many of the Scottish skulls the upper segment of the basi- 

 bregmatic line is considerably shorter than the lower segment, and the mean length 

 of the upper segment is also shorter than the mean length of the lower segment 

 (upper, 65 '7 ; lower, 67 '8), while in the Tasmanian the mean values of the two segments 

 of this line are approximately equal. To this I shall refer later. 



With regard to the frontal, parietal, and inion angles no measurements are given 

 by Buchner for the series of Tasmanian skulls, but Berry gives for the first in a 

 series of 50 Tasmanians a range in value from 131*5° to 149°, with a mean of 139'5°, 

 and for the second angle a range in value from 125'5° to 141'5°, with a mean of 134'3°. 

 In the Scottish series the frontal angle varies from 127° to 149°, with a mean of 136'9° ; 

 the parietal angle varies from 128° to 146°, with a mean of 135*61°. In the Australian 

 specimen figured by Klaatsch the frontal angle is comparatively large, namely, 

 149°, i.e. at the extreme upper limit of, but still within, the range of the variation 

 shown by the Scottish series ; the parietal angle in the Australian is 129°, which is 

 within the range of the Scottish series but at its lower limit. Berry and Robertson 

 (59) find that in a series of 100 Australian skulls the angle of frontal curvature varies 

 from 123*5° to 153°, with a mean value of 139*65°, i.e. distinctly below the value 

 figured in Klaatsch's specimen ; while the angle of parietal curvature varies from 

 125° to 145°, with a mean value of 135*7°, both of which values are approximately 

 equal to the values for the corresponding angles in the Tasmanian. The size of those 

 angles depends obviously upon the lengths of the frontal and parietal chords and 



