R. Crewdson Benington 
333 
of the 1864 series and one male (7) of the same series. Ossicles of the spheno- 
malar suture in one female (79) and two males (20, 34) of the Congo series, and 
in one non-adult (14) of the same series ossicles in the squamous suture. 
Ossicles at the asterion occur in four females (16, 20, 60, 91) and five males 
(1, 14, 49, 53, 61) of the 1864 Gaboon crania; in one male (23) and one female 
(39) of the 1880 Gaboon crania, and in one female (89), two males (34, 38) and 
one non-adult (14) of the Congo series. 
Lastly we may note that a deep canine fossa occurred in two males (27, 40) 
of the Congo series. 
There can be no question that every record of anatomical peculiarities varies 
with the individual observer, who is likely to be more interested in one character 
than another ; nay, the same observer will have his attention concentrated by the 
occurrence of a very marked anomaly on its appearance in less marked forms 
in examining further skulls ; or again he will seek for certain forms of anomaly 
because he has read that they are racial features of the group he is studying. 
There is at present unfortunately a complete want of standardisation in the 
matter of recording anatomical variations, and no illustrative classification for the 
guidance of the craniologist. Still admitting that selection plays a large part in 
all such records, and that the percentages of anomalies of any kind must be very 
rough, there does seem sufficient justification in the record we have given to 
show that in the matter of these anomalies and peculiarities, which admit less of 
the application of metrical methods, there is nothing to indicate that the negro 
skull of the Congo-Gaboon group is in any way less variable than the skull 
of any European people. 
(7) Conclusions. Such conclusions as we draw must be by way of suggestion ; 
one might hope that they may act as incitement to further investigation, above 
all as some inducement towards the procuring of really ample material and its 
adequate measurement and reduction. No final conclusions can be drawn until at 
least 100 crania of each sex for each local race have been obtained and measured 
by the same individual or by standardised methods. We have endeavoured to 
indicate the need of this by demonstrating how little profit can be obtained from 
existing measurements of such important characters as the orbit and palate. 
We may summarise the indications of the present paper as follows : 
(i) We do not feel justified in differentiating the Congo from the Gaboon 
crania on the basis of the present material. In some respects the Gaboon 1880 
series gives for the males a type which approaches slightly closer to the Angoni 
and so to the Zulu-Kaffir group than to the Gaboon 1864 series, which is at all 
points close to the Congo series, This difference is not, however, usually con- 
firmed by examination of the females, and we believe is largely due to the 
smallness of the 1880 series, which contains some rather large male crania. We 
