188 
Miscellatiea 
VI. Formulae for the Determination of the Capacity of the Negro 
Skull from External Measurements. 
By L. ISSERLIS, B.A. 
§ 1. Formulae for the determination of the capacity of the human skull from external 
measurements, were obtained by Lee and Pearson*. The material they employed consisted 
of various series of measurements of Bavarian, Aino and Naqada skulls. Measurements of 
Ancient and modern Egyptian and other non-European skulls were employed, chiefly for 
purposes of comparison. The formulae, some of which will be quoted later, were intended 
primarily for the prediction of the capacity of European skulls, from external measurements. 
Doubt has been thrown on several occasions on the applicability of these formulae to the Negro 
skull, one of the reasons alleged being the supposed difference in thickness of the bone of 
European and Negro crania. 
The publication t of the late Dr R. Crewdson Benington's researches on the negro skull has 
made it possible to obtain similar formulae for negro skulls, and to test how far these can 
be applied to the prediction of the capacity of European skulls and conversely to test the 
applicability of Lee and Pearson's Equations to the negro skull. 
§ 2. The material is fully described in Dr Benington's Study. The crania dealt with in 
the present paper are Benington's series A, B, C. 
A. Congo Crania in the Royal College of Surgeons. These crania provide 46 males and 
and 21 females, as owing to various defects no ca2)acity is available for numbers 25, 38, 48, 54 
among the males and numbers 69, 72, 75, 79, 82, 85 among the females. 
B. Crania from the Gaboon, Group I, brought by Dii Chaillu from Fernand Vaz in 1864. 
Of the 50 male and 44 female crania in the series, 2 males (numbers 3 and ?) and 1 female 
(number 2) are defective, leaving 48 male and 43 female crania available. 
C. Crania from the Gaboon, Group II, brought by Du Chaillu from Fernand Vaz in 1880. 
Two of the 18 males (numbers 12a and 20) and two of the 19 females (numbers 8 and 18) 
are defective. 
Altogether 110 male and 81 female crania have been dealt with. The correlation has been 
calculated of the capacity (C) and the product of the breadth, length and total height {B, L 
and H), for each group and for the aggregates of 110 male, and of 81 female crania. 
Correlation coefficients have also been calculated for the capacity and Ijreadth, capacity and 
length, and cajoacity and total height, but for the aggregates of the three groups only. Re- 
gression formulae are given in all cases. It is to be observed that Dr Crewdson Benington's 
measurements of capacity were taken with mustard seed, packing and measuring glass and 
that the error of measurement or rather his average diflference as compared with other workers 
in the Biometric Laboratory was under 10 cm'. 
In comparing the regression formulae obtained here, with those given by Lee and Pearson for 
European and other skulls it must be remembered that in all their formulae except (12) and (13) 
of p. 247 they employed the auricular height and not the total height. In the present paper as 
in Dr Benington's study H denotes the total height. Lee and Pearson denote this by H' and 
use H for the auricular height. 
It was not possible here to use the auricular height as it was not available for the whole of 
the Gaboon series B and 0. 
* Phil. Trans. Vol. 196, Series A, pp. 225—264. 
t Biometrika, Vol. viii. Nos. 3 aud 4, Dec. 1911. 
