The skulls of the inhabitants of the Caroline Islands.

  • Joseph Barnard Davis
Date:
[1865?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The skulls of the inhabitants of the Caroline Islands. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of New Caledonia may be regarded as the focus of hypsi-stenoceph- alism ; from whence it radiates eastwards to the Loyalty Islands and probably to the Feejees, and westwards and northwards to the Caro- line Islands; with how many intermediate points it is at present, from the very imperfect knowledge we possess of the craniology of the Pacific, which might more properly be called deplorable ignorance, impossible to tell. There is, however, evidence to show that it is not universally, and, as it were, indiscriminately, distributed throughout the numerous adjoin- ing or approximate archipelagos of this great region of the Western Pacific. It is most probable that it is limited to particidar islands, or groups of islands, within the bounds to which it does extend. The Salomon Islands constitute a large archipelago to the north-west of the New Hebrides and New Caledonia. The winter's collection includes five skulls of Salomon Islanders, and there are others buried in the cellars of the British Museum. These agree in their general forms; they are not high, they are even particularly low in the frontal region, and have a peculiar angular, bony, savage aspect, with prominent parietal tubers. On reverting to the figures of the busts of Caroline Islanders, and of Salomon Islanders also, in the splendid atlas of Dumontier, it will be seen, not only that the latter agree closely with the account now given of the skulls of Salomon Islanders, but, likewise, that the three busts of Caroline Islanders do not exhibit any material differ- ences from these skulls; on the contrary, they really belong to the same species. Hence, the inference is, that there are different cranial configurations in the islands of the Caroline archipelago ; that of some islands may be called hypsi-stenocephalic, whilst that of other islands presents a striking conformity with that of Salomon Islanders. At all events, the series of crania described by Prof. Van der Hoeven, and which there seems good grounds for regarding as authentic, differ essentially from the natives of the Lougonor or Nougonor group of the Caroline Islands. And this is fully confirmed by the account of the busts given by M. Blanchard, when he compares them with Poly- nesians. His words are :— Ce sont des physiognomies plus intelli- gentes que celles des Polynesians de Test, des tetes plus rondes, des fronts plus developpfe, p. 100. The greater roundness of the heads of these natives of Lougonor, or Nougonor, than those of Polynesians is in conformity with the figures of the busts, and also in agreement with our skulls of Salomon Islanders ; but the statement is totally at variance with the crania described by Professor Van der Hoeven. This may be considered to confirm, almost to prove, the essential diversity of the races peopling the different islands comprehended under the name of the Caroline Archipelago.
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