Karl Pearson 
Passing from this fundamental conception of our Italian professor — i.e. that 
the Moriori only differ from other " South Oceanic races " because they deformed 
their skulls — we turn to his discussion of the nasal index. We have seen that he is 
content to divide nasal indices into the percentages falling into three classes and does 
not trouble himself about the probable errors of these percentages even when based 
on 19 crania. He compares Poll's distribution with Thomson's and seems suspicious 
of the latter's results, because her differences for the two sexes are very considerable. 
Now Thomson states very clearly how she measured her nasal height, i.e. from the 
nasion to the lowest point of the edge of the left pyriform border, or if this were 
damaged, to the lowest point of the edge of the right aperture. Poll says he has 
taken his measurements according to the Frankfurt Concordat. He may have 
measured as Thomson did, but actually that " Verstandigung " runs on this point 
as follows : " Nasenhdhe, Fig. 2, wNH : von der Mitte der Sutura naso-frontalis bis 
zur Mitte der oberen Flache des Nasenstachels resp. zum tiefsten Rand der Aper- 
tura pyriformis" {Archiv fi'ir Anthrojjologie, Bd. XV, S. 4, 1884). This would justify 
a measurement to the nasal spine. It is therefore not absolutely clear what Poll 
may have done. But, in the results cited by Giuffrida-Ruggeri, Poll has pooled 
with his own data results obtained by Scott, Turner and others who certainly did 
not know anything of the Frankfurt Concordat*. It is not therefore justifiable to 
place Thomson's distribution against Poll's without further consideration of this 
point. The sexed crania of Duckworth and Poll are so few that the means are 
subject to large probable errors, but it is still suggestive to consider the differences 
in the results reached by various authorities. The numbers upon which each 
depend are given in brackets in the following Table. 
Measurement of the Nose. 
Males 
Females 
Nasal 
Height 
Breadth 
Index 
Nasal 
Height 
Breadth 
Index 
Poll 
Scott 
Thomson 
Duckworth 
.14-4 (6) 
57-5 (32) 
.57-3(34) 
56-2 (6) 
26-8 (6) 
26-5 (.32) 
25-3(34) 
24-2 (6) 
49-1 (6) 
46-1 (32) 
43-9 (34) 
43-8t (6) 
50-4 (5) 
50-9 (10) 
52-5 (21) 
52-3 (3) 
26-3 (5) 
24- 8(10) 
25- 3 (21) 
24-3(3) 
52-0 (5) 
48-8 (10) 
48-2 (21) 
46-5 (.3) 
* Perhaps the most illusory description of nasal height is that given by Sir W. H. Flower (Royal 
College of Surgeons' Catalogue, Man, p. xviii), " A vertical line between the nasion and lower border of 
the nasal aperture." The height will not be " vertical" in any case. Flower's figure (p. xii) shows he 
did not intend it to be vertical. If he meant in the vertical or sagittal plane of the skull then the 
measurement must be to the nasal spine, rather than to the border of the pyriform aperture. If he 
meant to the lowest point on the border of the pyriform aperture, then his nasal height is neither 
vertical, nor in the vertical sagittal plane, and his figure can only represent not the real length but 
a projection of the real length ! Unfortunately many English craniologists have only had Flower's 
definition before them. 
t Duckworth himself gives for his mean index for seven male crania 44-3 (p. 145) but liis table p. 150 
shows only seven male crania in all and one has no nasal measurements. 
2-2— 2 
