The aborigines of Tasmania. Pt. II. The skeleton / by Sir William Turner.

  • William Turner
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The aborigines of Tasmania. Pt. II. The skeleton / by Sir William Turner. 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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    XVI.—The Aborigines of Tasmania. Part II. The Skeleton. By Principal Sir Wm. Turner, K.C.B., F.R.S., President of the Society. (Plates I., II.) (Read December 20, 1909. Issued separately March 3, 1910.) CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction .411 Skeleton No. 310 412 Skull 412 Sagittal contour 418 Spinal column 421 Ribs and sternum 425 Pelvis 425 PAGE Superior extremity 428 Inferior extremity 429 Length of long bones and relative indices . . 433 Skull No. 75d ........ 436 Comparison with Australian, European, palaeolithic skulls, and Pithecanthropus .... 437 Explanation of Plates and Figures .... 453 Introduction. In a memoir “ On the Craniology, Racial Affinities and Descent of the Aborigines of Tasmania,” published by the Society in October 1908,# I described ten Tasmanian skulls in the Edinburgh Museums, and compared them with those of this extinct race in Paris, London, Oxford, Hobart Town and elsewhere. At that time I was under the impression that I had referred to all the crania of the aborigines, seventy-nine in number, which had been preserved in museums, and for the most part had been described. The memoir did not include a description of the rest of the skeleton. Subsequent to its publication I have ascertained the existence of additional crania in other collections. In a valuable memoir by Professor Hermann Klaatsch “ On the Skull of the Australian Aboriginal,” published by the authority of the Govern- ment of New South Wales,! a female Tasmanian skull, No. 404 in the Sydney Museum, is frequently referred to and its characters are compared with those of Australian crania. During the summer, 1909, on the visit of Professor Louis Dollo, of the Royal Museum, Brussels, to deliver an address to this Society, I had the oppor- tunity of showing him the collection of crania in the Anatomical Museum of the University, when he told me that the Brussels Museum contained the complete skeleton of a Tasmanian aboriginal, and a skull, said to be also from Tasmania, neither of which had been studied. With great courtesy he proposed to send the specimens to me to be examined and described. I wish most cordially to express my indebtedness to him for this great privilege. A note of particulars accompanied the specimens: “No. 310, male skeleton from Flinders Island, where a number * Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xlvi. p. 365, part ii. t Reports of the Pathological Laboratory of the Lunacy Department, vol. i. part iii., 1908, Sydney. TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. XLVII. PART III. (NO. 16). 62