Chas. D. Brower.
The material.—The collection as received at the Wistar Institute was notable for its general dark color, enhanced in many of the specimens by dark to black remains of the tissues. There was no mineralization and but little bone decay, though the bones were somewhat brittle.
There is a scarcity of children and adolescents; there are in fact only two skulls of subjects less than 20 years of age in the collection.
The skulls and bones that remain show no violence.
The remains show a complete freedom from syphilis or other constitutional disease; the only pathological condition present in some of the bones being arthritis. This speaks strongly for their preceding the contact with whites. The surface series, though smaller, shows three syphilitic skulls. An additional fact of interest is the absence in both the igloo and the surface series of all marks of scurvy. Such marks are fairly common farther southward. Finally, none of the skulls are deformed, either in life or posthumously.
Anthropological Observations and Measurements on the Collections
Age.—The first observations made on the igloo material were those as to the individual ages of the bodies. Such observations are necessarily rough, yet within sufficiently broad limits fairly reliable. The criteria are principally the condition of the teeth and that of the sutures. The possible error in such estimates is, experience has shown, as a rule well within 10 years in the older and within 5 years in the young adults or subadults.
One of the objects of these observations on the "igloo" material was to get some further light on whether the remains were those of a group that perished of an epidemic, famine, or some other sudden agency, or whether they represented just burials. The age distribution of the dead would differ considerably in the two cases.
| IGLOO MATERIAL | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 to 25 | 30 to 40 | 45 to 55 | Above 55 | |
| Per cent | Per cent | Per cent | Per cent | |
| Males (27) | 11 | 15 | 41 | 33 |
| Females (25) | 16 | 24 | 44 | 16 |
| Mean, both sexes | 13.5 | 19 | 42.5 | 25 |
| SURFACE SERIES | ||||
| Males (21) | 5 | 48 | 48 | |
| Females (14) | 29 | 36 | 36 | |
| Mean, both sexes | 11.5 | 17 | 43 | 29.5 |
The above table shows the data obtained, with those on the surface material from the same collection and known to be that of ordinary burials.