Societies and Academies

Abstract

LONDON Anthropological Institute, June 13.—Col. A. Lase Fox, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Prof. Busk, F.R.S., described a collection of crania of natives of the New Hebrides, some of which had been sent to the president by Mrs. Goodenough, and others to the Royal College of Surgeons, by Dr. Corrie, R.N, Seven were from the Island of Mallicollo and three from that of Vanikoro. With respect to the former, he remarked that they were of special interest as being the first, so far as he was aware, that had ever been brought to Europe from that locality, and also from their extraordinary form, due to the artificial depression of the forehead, a mode of deformation not hitherto recorded among the Melanesian race of New Guinea and the South Sea. The peculiar form of the head among the Mallicollese was noticed by Captain Cook and the two Forsters on the occasion of the discovery of the Island in 1774· The skulls from Vanikoro, on the other hand, represented the normal form of the cranium in people of the same race.—A paper by Mr. Ranken on the South Sea Islanders, was read by Mr. Brabrook. The author proposed that the name Mahori should be adopted to distinguish the light races of the Pacific from the Papuans or blacks. He adduced evidence to show that the latter first occupied a considerable number of the islands, and that the lighter race arrived subsequently from the west and formed a settlement in Samoa, whence it is now well established, that they spread in all directions, and, in some instances, mingled with the Papuans. He mentioned several points in which the Mahoris differ essentially from the Malays, who, however, appear to be a cognate race.—A short account of a visit paid to New Guinea, by M. d'Albertis, was communicated by Mr. Franks.—Mr. Distant described some photographs of natives of the Nicobar Islands.