Research Items

Abstract

Australian Female Skull.—Prof. F. Wood-Jonea points out in Man for February that the statement frequently made that 1000 c.c. is the lowest capacity occurring in skulls that can be classed as normal and human is erroneous. The female Australian skull is not only remarkably small, but also falls below this figure. It is due to this misconception that the discovery of a female Australian skull of 960 c.c. was hailed with such enthusiasm as having the lowest known cubic capacity of any human skull (MacKenzie). Hrdlička's average for 395 female crania is: max. length 179.4, max. breadth 127.6, basibregmatie height 127.4, modiolus, 144.8. Among these normally small-headed females there is a very definite element, especially in the central-northern and western portions of Australia, of unusually small-headed women. Sir William Turner, in his Challenger report (1884), found in 11 skulls an average cranial capacity of 938 c.c.; while in 30 adult Australian female skulls with a modiolus of 139 or less, which were measured by Hrdlicka or the writer, the averages were as follows: max. length 169.7, max. breadth, 120.7, basibregmatie height, 121.9, modiolus 137.5. Although the capacity was not measured directly, some guide to the relation between the modiolus and the cranial capacity is furnished by the following correlations: