172 
DE. J. CLELAND ON THE VARIATIONS OF THE HUMAN SKULL. 
bones met with, which they think have been long enough in possession of the soil. The 
exhumed bones are collected in great heaps, some consisting entirely of skulls, others of 
limb-bones. There is no reason to believe that any of these skulls have much antiquity. 
Though 52 has been selected as exhibiting most distinctly some of the signs of gravita- 
tion, 54 is also apparently the skull of an old person ; it is toothless, the sutures begun 
to be obliterated, and the condyloid surfaces small and flat. 53 has markedly progna- 
thous incisor sockets. 55, 56, & 57 are obviously female skulls. 55 is toothless, and 
has the condyloid surfaces small and flat. It has no contact of the sphenoid with the 
parietal on the left side. 57, in the possession of Dr. Brereton, of Oughterard, has no 
spheno-parietal suture on either side, but on each side a temporo-frontal suture about 
f inch long. 
58, 59, 60, Hindoo. — 60, much more massive than the other two, is marked “ Brought 
from the banks of the Hoogley by the Marquis of Hastings.” All three skulls, together 
with others in the Anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh University, present unsym- 
metrical flattening of the occipital region, such as is described by Dr. Barnard Davis as 
occurring in Siamese skulls*. Seeking an explanation of the same sort as Dr. Davis 
sought, the writer once asked the wife of an Indian officer if the natives had any peculiar 
way of cradling their children, and got for answer that they had not, but that they were 
very fond of laying them on their backs, and that when the Indian nurses placed the 
English children in that position their mothers turned them on the side, as they fancied 
lying on the back would make their heads the same round shape as those of the natives. 
Possibly when the occipital arch is flat, and therefore of a weak form, it more readily 
yields to accidental pressure than in other cases. 
61 to 67, Negro. — 61 is the skull of a Negro drummer of a French regiment ; the 
whole skeleton is preserved. 62, the skull of an old person, has a superficial resemblance 
to an Australian skull, but the arch lacks the characteristic curve of the roof, and the 
supraorbital ridge is owing to enormous frontal sinuses. 63 has the dorsum sellm reaching 
above the level of the floor of the anterior cranial fossa, a sign of a badly developed skull. 
64 has the upper part of the occipital bone replaced by a large Wormian bone: this 
skull and 65 are well developed. 66 is catalogued as a Negress, and has some feminine 
characters. 67 is marked “ Negress, aged fifteen, from West Africa.” 
68 to 71, Kafir. — 68 has the cranial curvature remarkably deficient, and the posterior 
nares remarkably low. 71 is female, and, as compared with the males, has a level base 
and high cranial curvature. 
72 & 73, Australian. — 73 has the dorsum selke on a level with the floor of the anterior 
cranial fossa. 
74 & 75, Kanaka. — 74, male; 75, female. 
76 & 77, Esquimaux. — 76 is of unascertained sex; it presents various feminine 
characters. 77 is remarkable for its great length of base-line and deficient cranial cur- 
vature. 
* Thesaurus Craniorum, p. 176. 
