Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 18.djvu/767

Rh which seemed to exist in all the adult Tasmanians, and which resulted from the disposition of the parietal bosses, they being very prominent, almost conical, and situated at an equal distance from the coronal and lambdoidal sutures. Between these prominences existed, on each side of the sagittal suture, itself placed in a hollow, an antero-posterior groove which contributed to give the skull its peculiar characteristic



form. It results from this considerable development of the parietal bosses that, below them, the figure of the skull was descending without swelling out, the maximum transverse diameter being nearly on a level with them. The antero-posterior curve was developed regularly to the occipital bone, which was very much swelled out, so that at this level the curve was slightly inflected upward; at the summit of the occipital crest it was often abruptly inflected downward. The forehead was quite narrow. The face was not much raised, and exhibited brutal forms. The arches of the brows were prominent, and appeared more projecting than they were, on account of the sunken position of the root of the nose. The nasal bones, convex and pinched above, were deeply hollowed in their lower part, and were then lifted up to flatness in front. The very wide nasal orifice almost formed an equilateral triangle. The superior maxillary was notably prognathous, but the teeth, much less oblique than the bone, descended sometimes even vertically, and were of considerable size. The horizontal branch of the inferior maxillary was robust and thick, while the ascending branch was thin and narrow. The mandible was very short, so that the teeth had to be projected considerably forward to meet those of the superior maxillary. The chin was retreating.

The Malays gave the name of Papuans to the Oceanian negroes in general. The term, which signifies frizzled, is properly applied to the group who are distinguished by their bushy hair, and is now reserved for the race whose representatives are more or less numerously found