GENERAL FRAL LIBRAR University MICHIGAN ON A SERIES OF NEPALESE SKULLS. GURUNG TRIBE (4 skulls). The Gurung tribe is exemplified by one skull of an adult male, and by three skulls of boys, in which the dentition has not gone beyond the acquisition of the first true molar, with the deciduous series. These skulls show a slight family likeness in the degree of flatness of the nasal bones, with a slight general prominence of the interorbital region, and a moderate prognathism. In the adult male the forehead passes without indent into the nose, as in the Grecian type. The frontal suture is persistent; but it has been obliterated in the younger skulls. In the skull of the youth (1 g, g, g, J, I, J), on the right side, the frontal joins the squamosal; on the left side a wormian intervenes between the alisphenoid and parietal: in the others the usual junction of these bones obtains. The chin is prominent in all. The length of the adult skull is 7 inches (1780); its breadth is 5 inches 8 lines (1450). In this skull the squamosals are abruptly prominent below the parietals, and a great part of the suture between the ex- and super-occipitals remains. The following are the dimensions of three of these skulls :— Gurung: males. Length of cranium ... Breadth of cranium... Youth. Child. (130-0) Anomalies. In the boy's skull (1 h, h, h, h, h, h), with m 1 and the deciduous set of teeth, the right condyloid cup of the atlas has coalesced with the occipital condyle, and the rest of the atlas is so closely applied to the margin of the great foramen, as to indicate an ultimate, if not speedy coalescence of that part of the vertebra with the occipital one. URAON TRIBE (2 skulls). The skulls of this tribe are of adult males; they show a rather narrow elongate form of cranium, with prognathous maxillaries. In one the cheekbones project, in the other not. In both the nasals project and are short, with the usual indent between their root and the forehead. In the slightly larger skull the length of the cranium is 7 inches 14 line (1820); the breadth of ditto is 5 inches line (1300). The alisphenoids meet the parietals, and the frontal suture is obliterated, in both skulls. SHOPA or SOKPA TRIBE (2 skulls). The cranium in one of these skulls is short and broad, in the other it is long and narrow; the malars are somewhat prominent and the jaws slightly prognathous in both. In the dolichocephalic variety the length of the cranium is 7 inches 5 lines (1880); its breadth is 5 inches 6 lines (1400). The alisphenoids join the parietals, and the frontal suture is obliterated in both skulls. DIMAL TRIBE. The 'Dimal' skull most resembles those of the Gurung tribe, especially in the form of the interorbital part. This skull is chiefly remarkable as exemplifying the rare disease of hypertrophous thickening of the parietal bones. BODO TRIBE. This shows the dolichocephalic or elongate cranial form, with prognathous jaws and almost vertical, not projecting, malar bones. The nasals are slightly prominent, with a little depression between them and the forehead. The length of this cranium is 7 inches 2 lines (184-0); its breadth is 5 inches 3 lines (1350). The alisphenoids join the parietals, and the frontal is undivided. KOCCH TRIBE. Of the two skulls of this tribe, one shows the hypertrophy of the cranial vault to a great degree, with much density of the thickened bone. The other skull measures in length 7 inches 3 lines (1850), and in breadth 5 inches (1270). Both are prognathous, and the malars are slightly prominent in one skull the nasal bones project, in the other they are flat. KHAMPA TRibe. This skull shows large and prominent nasals, continued, without indent, from the frontal bone, slightly prominent malars and maxillaries, with a low and narrow forehead, and the following proportions of cranium:-length 6 inches 10 lines (1750), breadth 5 inches 6 lines (1400). The parietals join the alisphenoids, and the frontal is undivided. BAGNATH TRIBE (Nepal proper) (2 skulls). One of these skulls is of an adult, the other is of a child. The jaw, in the adult, is slightly prognathous; the malars are slightly inclined outward; the nasals are moderately prominent; the forehead is low and narrow. The length of the cranium is 7 inches (1800); the breadth is 5 inches 6 lines (142.0). In other characters this skull resembles that of the Khampa tribe. SYMBHUNATH TRIBE (Hill-man, probably Thibetan). In The two skulls so marked differ singularly in the development of the nasal bones in one (1 c) they are very long and prominent; in the other (1 d) they are flat in the simious variety the malar bones are broad and prominent, and the jaw is broad and prognathous, giving a Mongolian aspect to the skull; the other skull conforms to Blumenbach's Caucasian type. the skull I d, the length of the cranium is 7 inches 1 line (1800); the breadth is 5 inches 5 lines (137·0). The skull I c is about 3 lines shorter and 2 lines broader than the other. In both the frontal is undivided, and the alisphenoids join the parietals, the right alisphenoid in 1 c being divided into three wormian bones. BAGNATH TRIBE (Nepal proper). The adult skull so marked is prognathous, with a moderate development of the nasal bones, and divergence of the malars at their lower part. The length of the cranium is 7 inches 1 line (1800); the breadth is 5 inches 6 lines (1390). The alisphenoids join the parietals, and the frontal is undivided. In the child's skull the left squamosal sends forward a process dividing the alisphenoid from the parietals. The suture dividing the mastoid from the squamosal is retained. MAN OF THE PLAINS (Ganges: unknown tribe). This skull is prognathous, but with a good nasal development; the malars are scarcely prominent. The length of the cranium is 7 inches 2 lines (1830); the breadth is 5 inches (1280). The alisphenoids join the parietals, and the frontal is undivided. This skull shows a strong occipital spine. FAKIR (Bengal Islamite). This skull is prognathous, with a less nasal development, but yet good: a 1 slight malar divarication, as if tending to the Mongolian type, with a low forehead. The length of the cranium is 7 inches (1780); the breadth is 5 inches 3 lines (1350). LOWLANDERS (Caste unknown). In the series of 10 skulls so marked is shown the same extreme variety in the development of the nasal bones as in the Newar, Lepcha, and Bhotia series; in a few they are as flat as in the West African Negro, and in a few they are very prominent. There is not the same range of variety in the shape of the cranium; it is moderately oval, with the forehead narrow, and low in most. In three specimens the length of the cranium is 7 inches (1780), the least length being 6 inches 5 lines (1650); the extreme breadth is 5 inches 3 lines (1350), and this occurs in one of the larger skulls (1 c, c, c, c). In this skull the frontal suture is persistent. All are more or less prognathous, but some of them less so than in the majority of the Nepal tribes. A skull marked‘Tarai' (1 k, k, k, k, k) and another (1 b, b, b, b, b) show prominent or divergent malar bones: in the rest the Caucasian proportions of those bones prevail. Three of the above series of skulls show a produced nasal spine of the premaxillary part of the upper jaw-peculiarly so in “I i, i, i, i, ¿” along the whole extent of the median premaxillary suture. In one skull (1 j› j› j› j› j) the squamosals join the frontals; in the rest the ordinary junction of parietals and alisphenoids prevails. In the skull marked "I e, e, e, e, e" there are two large lateral wormian bones, which form the sides of the interparietal half of the superoccipital element. OBSERVATIONS. The first general remark that is suggested by the series of 90 skulls above characterized is, that the size and capacity of the cranium, or in other words, the amount of brain, is not greater than that which is usually found in the uneducated and lowest class of day-labourers in this country and in Ireland ; and that this low development of cranium is associated with more or less prognathism. In all, the general size of the molar teeth accords with that of the white, olive, yellow, and red races of mankind. The next remark is suggested by the extent of variety which is displayed, not merely in the entire series, but in the particular tribes or families comprising it. The long, short and pyramidal, and vertically flattened, forms of cranium are severally exemplified; just as, in skulls from ancient British places of sepulture, some are found which, "from an unusual degree of narrowness of the calvarium and face, belong less obviously to the brachycephalic class than usual*," whilst others show the platycephalic or the acrocephalic formt. These results of the experienced craniological observers, Davis and Thurnam, concurring with my own, teach us how deceptive any single specimen of the skull of any one tribe would be if viewed and described as exemplifying the cranial type of such tribe or family; and it shows the value of such extensive collections as that made by the accomplished and indefatigable Resident at Nepal. * Crania Britannica, 4to. Davis and Thurnam, 6, 7 (7). + Ibid. 12 (4) “In this stone barrow, on Wetton Hill, presenting only rude flint instruments, British pottery, the primitive flexed position of the skeleton, and the short rude cist -therefore with every mark of the primeval period, and no element of remote antiquity wanting-we meet with two separate and distinct aberrant forms of skull in interments of the same age." There are not more than two or three skulls in the entire series which would have suggested, had they been presented to observation without previous knowledge of their country, that they belonged to any primary division of Human kind distinct from that usually characterized by craniologists as Caucasian or Indo-European: the majority might have been obtained from grave-yards in London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, and have indicated a low condition of the Caucasian race. Only with regard to the Bhotias, a mountain-race, one of which was marked 'trans nivem,' could the Mongolian type be said to prevail. Where the skulls of any one of the Nepal tribes amount to from 6 to 10 in number, they present varieties in the proportion of length and breadth of cranium, in the development of the nasal bones, in the divarication or prominence of the malar bones, in the shape of the forehead, in the degree of prominence of the frontal sinuses, and projection of the supraciliary ridge, which would be found, perhaps, in as many promiscuously collected skulls of the operatives of any of our large manufacturing towns, and which would be associated with corresponding diversities of features and physiognomy. As my experience in the characters of human skulls has increased, so has my difficulty of determining therefrom the primary race or variety of mankind. I have examined skulls of white Europeans, showing, as strongly as some of the Nepalese skulls, the flat nose, prognathous jaws, and contracted cranium of the Ethiopian. Only with regard to the Australian and Tasmanian aborigines do I feel any confidence of being able to detect, in any single skull, offered without comment to scrutiny, the distinctive characters of a race. The contracted cranium, flat nose, prominent jaws, and more or less protuberant cheek-bones are associated, in the Australo-Tasmanian race, with a peculiarly prominent supraciliary ridge and deep indent between its mid-part and the root of the nose; and still more peculiar and characteristic is the large proportional size of the teeth, especially of the true molars. Upon what, it may be asked, does so close a conformity of character depend, which inspires confidence in the determination of race, by inspection of any single skull of the aborigines of the vast Australian continent and adjacent islands? It is probable that it depends on the degree of uniformity of the manner of life and the few and simple wants of those aborigines. The food, the mode of obtaining it, the bodily actions, muscular exertions, and mental efforts stimulating and guiding such actions, vary but little in the different individuals. The prevailing simple and low social state, the concomitant sameness and contracted range of ideas-in short, the small extent of variety in the whole series of living phenomena from the cradle to the grave of a human family of that grade, govern, as it seems to me, the conformity of the cranial organization. In the woolly-haired Negroes of Africa there is greater range of variety of cranial organization, concomitant with a greater range of variety in their modes of life and physical development. I believe it would be rash to pronounce on the Negro nature of any single skull, save of some of the lowest races of the west coast of Africa; because I have observed, previous to the present craniological comparison, that the assigned characters of the Æthiopian cranium occasionally occur as fully developed in certain low individuals of other races; the subjects of the present Report afford similar instances. This experience has led to the inference that, in the ratio of the complexity of the social system, and of the diversity in the modes of sustaining life and spending it, is the range of diversity of feature and of cranial organization. It is probable, therefore, from the effects of civilization and social progress in other varieties or families of mankind, that were the seeds of such progress to germinate and take on growth in the Australian family, the uniformity of cranial character now prevailing would be concomitantly and progressively modified. It is certain that such modifications of cranial structure and feature, accompanying diversities in modes of life, detract from their value as distinctive natural-history characters of races of mankind. Supposing social progress to be possible in a race like the Australians, without admixture of other blood, a question of much interest suggests itself-in what degree and in what way the cranial physiognomy would be modified? By analogy I think it probable that the modification might, in the course of time, become at least as great as that which is observable in unmixed Negro races which for generations have been subjected to, and improved by, civilizing influences. Upon the whole, then, in regard to the immediate subject of the present Report, undertaken at the request of the Committee of the Ethnological Section, and performed on that account, as well as out of regard for my accomplished and scientific friend Mr. Hodgson, with much pleasure and the best of my leisure and ability, I must confess that the results are rather negative than positive; but if they should suggest any improved views in the study and application of the physical characters of Man, the aim of the Section will not wholly have been unfulfilled. Report of the Committee, consisting of Messrs. Maskelyne, Hadow, Hardwich, and Llewelyn, on the Present State of our Knowledge regarding the Photographic Image. THE chemical problem presented by the photographic image is one of great complexity. It is uninviting to the chemist in so far as it presents very little opportunity of his obtaining quantitative results; for howsoever subtle and rapid be the chemical transformation effected by the light, it consists, in most cases, of a superficial change only, and defies even the delicate methods of the balance. In undertaking to collect what is known and to test the correctness of what has been published regarding this intricate problem, the Committee have proposed to themselves to deal first with the simplest transformations on which photographic processes are founded, and to pass on from these to the more complex. Moreover they confine themselves to the photographic results obtained with the salts of silver, as these are the most employed, and because it is necessary to assign some limits to their inquiry. If the salts of silver are the most remarkable for their susceptibility to photochemical change, one is naturally led to search first for the causes of this among those simpler compounds of the metal in which the transformation is not complicated by the secondary decompositions which might be expected to accompany it in the case of organic compounds. Yet among the inorganic compounds this susceptibility to photochemical decomposition is rare; and though not absolutely confined to one salt, the chloride of silver, that body exhibits the simplest and one of the best illustrations of it. The chloride of silver, when perfectly pure, passes, on exposure to light, from its pure white through various stages of change in hue, in which blue is mixed with grey, until it finally reaches a deep slate-violet colour. Chlorine is evolved from the chloride; but the question which here meets us in limine is one which probably underlies the whole of the problem we have to consider, and consists in the chemical condition in which the silver remains |