Observations on the human crania contained in the Museum of the Army Medical Department, Fort Pitt, Chatham / by George Williamson.

  • Williamson, George
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the human crania contained in the Museum of the Army Medical Department, Fort Pitt, Chatham / by George Williamson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/96 page 17
    No, 248. Skull of a Moorman—Cranium oval and well Formed; nasal bones flat and on tlie same plane, with considera- ble breadth between the eyes; alveolar processes rather everted and long'; numerous ossa triquetra at the superior angle of tire occipital bone; sphenoid entirely out from the parietal by a process of the temporal bone; anterior nasal aperture wide, and approaching to the Negro form (see illustration).— Same Donor. No. 251. Skull of a female Pariah, lowest caste.—Cranium narrow and flattened laterally ; forehead high, but narrow; orbits small and contracted; external pterygoid process large; superciliary ridge not marked.—Same Donor. No. 257. Skull of Kalian Mahan, a notorious Thug, who had been engaged in at least sixty different murders. He died in the Thug gaol at Lucknow, East Indies, 1840, where he had been imprisoned five years; he was about sixty-five years of age, a good-looking man.—Cranium narrow; forehead low and receding; superciliary ridges prominent; ridge for the attach' ment of the temporal muscle very extensive and well marked; occiput prominent; the bones are dense, thin, and transparent. Donor, Dr. Menzies, 2nd Class S. S. DIVISION 12 SINGALESE. There are five crania from Ceylon. The cranium is of an oval form ; the forehead is low and retreating; the vertex and occiput are well rounded ; the space for the downward deve- lopment of the brain is of moderate extent; the ridge for the attachment of the temporal muscle is not extensive nor strongly marked, exceptin No. 258 ; the superciliary ridge is well marked; the nasal bones are well arched; the alveolar processes are gene- rally straight, but project somewhat in No. 258 and No. 260; the anterior nasal aperture is of the European form; Wormian bones were found in the occipital suture in two instances, in one of which they were of large size, cutting off the superior angle of the occipital bone; these bones were also found in the temporal and sphenoid suture in one; the foramen magnum was small in one. No. 258. Skull of a Singalese, aged 48. A native of the district of Galli Ceylon, who was executed for murder in Oc- tober, 1836. His character was very bad, and all his acts were committed in the most concealed manner.—Forehead low and receding; posterior part of head rather large; alveolar processes of the superior maxillary bone large and projecting; a large os triquetrum in the temporal and sphenoid suture; ridge for
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3