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SCHAAFFHAUSEN ON THE CRANIA OF THE ANCIENT RACES OF MAN.
163

Huschke estimates the cranial contents of a Negress at 1127 cubic centimetres, of an old Negro at 1146 cubic centimetres. The capacity of Malay skulls estimated by water equalled 36, 33 ounces, whilst in the diminutive Hindoos it falls to as little as 27 ounces.

It is, of course, a matter of the greatest interest to inquire whether a similar conformation has been before noticed; whether it is probable that it exists only in skulls to which a high antiquity must be assigned; and whether in any instance of the kind observations may not have been made tending to supply what is wanting in the results of the investigation above detailed, and to confirm or to contradict the conclusions drawn therefrom. Large frontal sinuses, it is admitted, are occasionally noticed in skulls; but these instances afford only faint indications of the remarkable conformation which gives the cranium we are considering its brutal expression. In the museums of the College of Surgeons in London, the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, of the Universities of Gottingen, Berlin, and Eonn, there is nothing which can be compared with it. Neither do the ancient northern crania, described by Retzius, Eschricht, &c, show any conformation of the kind. But it is remarkable, and important in the explanation of this form, that a prominence, though in much less degree, of the supra-orbital ridges has been observed chiefly in the crania of savage races, as well as in those of great antiquity. Thus Sandifort[1] figures the skull of a North American from an ancient burial-place on New Norfolk Sound, as cranium Schitgagani, with a similar though far less considerable projection of the supraorbital ridges. In Morton's works[2] an unusual development of the same part may be seen in the Peruvian (tab. 6), the Mexican (tab. 16, 17, 18), the Seminole (tab. 24), and in the skulls of other races (tab. 25, 34, 35, 36, 37, 52, 57, 63, and 66), some of which were taken from ancient burial-places. Lucæ[3] gives a figure of a very brutal Papu skull in the Senkenbergian collection, having strong, coalescent superciliary arches. Even Bory St. Vincent assigned as characters of the Celtic race an elongated form of the skull, a forehead somewhat depressed towards the temples, a deep depression between the forehead and nose, strongly developed supra-orbital ridges, and worn teeth. Eschricht examined the skulls from the Hünengräbern (Giants' Graves) of the Island of Moen;[4] they are remarkably diminutive, especially in the facial part, the occiput very short, the orbits un- usually small, whilst the supra-orbital ridges, on the contrary, are very large; the nasal bones project strongly in front, and a depression exists between the supra-orbital arches and the nasal bones, deep enough to receive the forefinger of an adult; the attachments of the facial muscles are strongly marked, the alveolar margins projecting, and the teeth worn off obliquely. Subsequently Eschricht obtained from the same


  1. Tabulæ craniorum, Lugd. Bat., 1838.
  2. Crania Americana. London, 1839.
  3. Zur Organischen Formenlehre. Frankf., 1844. Taf. xi.
  4. Bericht üb. d. 22te Versamm. deutsch. Naturf. u. Aerzt. in Bremen, 1844.