Dr. Davis has added to the valuable data included in his Thesaurus Craniorum, a series of measurements of skeletons. Unfortunately that of a male Quichua, procured by him in the form of a “Peruvian mummy,” proved to be affected with carious disease about the last dorsal and upper lumbar vertebræ; and consequently the length of the vertebral column essential for comparison with the skeletons of other races, is wanting; but the other measurements indicate in this example a stature below the average, while the skull exceeds it. The average internal capacity of eighteen Quichua male skulls, as given by Dr. Davis, is seventy-three, whereas this is 78.5. That the ancient Peruvian skulls are, with rare exceptions, of small size, is undoubted; and in view of this it becomes a matter of some importance to determine whether this was in any degree due to a correspondingly small stature. Obscure references are found in the legendary history of Peru to a pigmy race. Pedro de Cieza de Leon, whose travels have been translated by Mr. Markham, refers to the first emigration of the Indians of Chincha to that valley, “where they found many inhabitants, but all of such small stature, that the tallest was barely two cubits high” (p. 260). Garcilasso de la Vega repeats another tradition heard by himself in Peru, of a race of giants who came by sea to the country, and were so tall that the natives reached no higher than their knees. They lived by rapine, and wasted the whole country till they were destroyed by fire from heaven. Traditions of this class may possibly point to the existence of an aboriginal race of small stature. The aborigines of Guatemala, Salvador, and Nicaragua, are described as below the middle size (Bancroft, vol. i. p. 688); and Von Tchudi divides the wild Indians of Peru into the Iscuchanos, the natives of the highlands, a tall, slim, vigorous race, with the head proportionally large and the forehead low; and those of the hot lowlands, a smaller race, lank, but broad shouldered, with a broad face and small round chin. There appear, therefore, to be traces of one or more aboriginal races of small stature. But Dr. Morton says expressly of the Peruvians: “Our knowledge of their physical appearance is derived solely from their tombs. In stature they appear not to have been in any respect remarkable, nor to have differed from the cognate nations except in the conformation of the head, which is small, greatly elongated, narrow its whole length, with a very retreating forehead, and possessing more symmetry than is usual in skulls of the American race.” Some of the characteristics here referred to are, in part at least, the result of artificial modifications; but the small head appears to be an indisputable characteristic of the most numerous ancient people of Peru.
It may not unreasonably excite surprise that Dr. Morton should have adduced results apparently pointing to the conclusion that civilisation had progressed among the native races of the American continent in an inverse ratio to the volume of brain; and yet passed it over with such slight comment. The only hint at a recognition of the difficulty is where, as he draws his work to a close, he indicates his observation of a greater anterior and coronal development in the smaller Peruvian brain. “It is curious,” he says, “to observe that the barbarous nations possess a larger brain by 5½ cubic inches than the Toltecans; while, on the other hand, the Toltecans possess a greater relative capacity of the anterior chamber of the skull in the proportion of 42.3 to 41.8. Again, the coronal region, though absolutely greater in the barbarous tribes, is rather larger in proportion in the demi-civilised tribes.”[[179]] But Dr. Morton also noted that the heads of nine Peruvian children in his possession “appear to be nearly if not quite as large as those of children of other nations at the same age”;[[180]] so that he seemed to recognise something equivalent to an arrested cerebral development accompanying the intellectual activity of this remarkable people at some later stage, yet without apparently affecting their mental power. But it was characteristic of this minute and painstaking observer to accumulate and set forth his results, unaffected by any apparent difficulties or inconsistencies which they might seem to involve.
Important advances have been made in craniometry, as in other branches of anthropology, since Dr. Morton formed the collection which now, with many later additions, constitutes an important department in the collections of the Academy of Science of Philadelphia. Zealous and well-trained labourers are following in his steps; but the value of his services to science are more fully appreciated with every addition to the work he inaugurated. Researches have been prosecuted for some years by a committee of the British Association with a view to securing reliable data relative to the tribes of the Canadian North-West and British Columbia. In following out their instructions, Dr. Franz Boas has prepared valuable tables of measurements, both of living examples of the Haidah, Tsimshian, Kwakintl, and Nootka tribes, and of crania of those and other natives of the Pacific coast; but unfortunately he has omitted the cerebral capacity. But a large collection of crania of tribes lying to the south of British Columbia, now in the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, has furnished to Mr. Lucien Carr opportunities for a series of careful measurements showing some very distinctive diversities among tribes of the coast and the islands of Southern California. From those the following table is derived. The capacity is given in cubic centimetres; and shows not only a marked diversity in cerebral capacity distinguishing different island tribes, but also notes the relative difference of the male and female head. Among the Indians of the Pacific coast are the Haidahs and others noted for exceptional ingenuity and skill in their carvings, pottery, and other handiwork. But besides the fair-skinned Haidahs and Tsimshians of the north, there are essentially diverse tribes of Southern California, noticeable for swarthy and almost black colour; and not only inferior, but essentially differing in the style of their arts.
TABLE VIII
CRANIA OF PACIFIC COAST TRIBES
Santa Catalina Island, California.
| No. of Crania. | Sex. | Capacity | Capacity | Capacity |
| Average. | Maximum. | Minimum. | ||
| 26 | Male | 1470 | 1719 | 1282 |
| 12 | Female | 1279 | 1451 | 1098 |
San Clementé Island, California.
| No. of Crania. | Sex. | Capacity | Capacity | Capacity |
| Average. | Maximum. | Minimum. | ||
| 9 | Male | 1452 | 1747 | 1300 |
| 6 | Female | 1315 | 1352 | 1268 |
Santa Cruz Island, California.