R. Crewdson Benington 
325 
of Nigerian natives recently shown me by Dr Hugh Stannus indicates that most 
well-known European anatomical deformities occur, if possibly with lessened 
frequency, even in the adult Negro. A striking example of this occurs in No. 82 
of the Gaboon 1864 series reproduced as E and F on our Plate. It is an 
interesting case of cleft palate with a complete absence of praemaxilla*. But 
such anatomical defects externally obvious during life, appear to occur rarely 
in collections of negro crania. 
A certain post-mortem injury to these negro crania is referred to by Professor 
Keith in his note on the Congo series : " Some of the crania show marks of having 
been cut or notched in the supra-orbital region": see our p. 294. This notching 
was noticed originally by Dr Benington in the two Gaboon series, and he was 
surprised to find it again in the Congo skulls at the Royal College. It is not, 
however, confined to the supra-orbital, or indeed to the orbital regions. Fig. A 
(Plate XXVI) shows it on the supra-orbital region, Fig. B on the supra- and sub- 
orbital regions, and Figs. A and C along the external margin. Again Fig. D shows 
it on the occipital edge of the foramen magnum. It is not easy to understand 
how the notching came about. Sometimes the markings have almost the appear- 
ance of the teeth-gnawings of a rodent ; at other times they seem to be due to a 
rough knife, which might possibly have been used to clear away persistent 
fragments of flesh. It is noteworthy that they are common to both the Congo 
and the Fernand Vaz series, and they are not common to the large series of 
prehistoric and historic Egyptian crania in the Biometric Laboratory. In the 
latter series a few such markings have been found almost invariably about the 
foramen magnum, and suggest rough handling by the native finder, who, being 
paid for the skull, wished to separate it rapidly by aid of his knife from the trunk. 
In one such case at least it was obvious that the separation of a fused atlas had 
been the cause of the notching. Whether due to man or to rodent, no doubt some 
explanation will be forthcoming now that attention is drawn to it and inquiries 
can be made on the spot. 
General Peculiarities. In the Congo series many of the crania show inferior 
frontal protuberance (i.e. bulging of the temporal area of the frontal) ; for example 
No. 78. This condition is associated with a marked Sylvian depression, which 
lies between the inferior frontal protuberance and the temporal protuberance of 
the squamous. 
There is often a median eminence in the metopic area of the frontal more or 
less marked and lying between the regions of the frontal eminence. Frontal 
processes of the squamous : these are varied giving fronto-squamosal sutures of 
different lengths, e.g. No. 73, where this suture measures 6 mm. on R, while on 
the L a slender frontal process of the squamous meets a similar process of the 
frontal giving the " pterion in if." — The K may be vertical as in No. 73, or 
* Compare Plate G, Fig. E, and Plate I, Figs. 10 and 13 of the Treasury of Human Inheritance, 
Vol. r. pp. 121—133. 
