Chapter VII: Munsee Crania: Prognathism, Facial and Alveolar32

LEGEND:
A = Basion-prosthion line
B = Basion subnasal point[33]
C = Basion-nasion
D = Prosthion-nasion height
E = Prosthion subnasal point height
F = Facial angle (angle between _a_ and _d_)
G = Alveolar angle (angle between _a_ and _e_)

MALES
--------+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------
Number | (A) | (B) | (C) | (D) | (E) | (F) | (G)
| | | | | | |
| (_a_) |(_b_) | (_c_) |(_d_) | (_e_)| |
--------+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------
| _cm._ | _cm._| _cm._ | _cm._| _cm._| ° | °
285,306 | 10.5 | 9.7 | 10.4 | 7 | 2.1 | 70 | 62
285,308 | 10.2 | 9.2 | 10.3 | 7.4 | 2.2 | 70 | 58
285,301 | 10 | 8.8 | 10.4 | 7.6 | 2.3 | 72 | 54
285,305 | 9.4 | 8.6 | 10.0 | 7.2 | 2.2 | 74 | 64
285,326 | 9.9 | 8.9 | 10.3 | 6.9 | 2.0 | 74 | 56
285,303 | 9.5 | 8.7 | 10.2 | 6.8 | 1.9 | 77 | 61
+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------
| (6) | (6) |(6) | (6) | (6) | (6) | (6)
Averages| 9.9 | 9.0 | 10.3 | 7.15| 2.1 | 73 | 59
--------+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------
FEMALES
--------+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------
285,307 | 10.4 | 9.2 | 10.1 | 6.8 | 2.1 | 69 | 52
285,327 | 9.4 | 8.4 | 9.7 | 6.6 | 1.9 | 74 | 55
285,302 | 9.0 | 8.0 | 9.6 | 7.0 | 2.2 | 74 | 58
285,304 | 10 | 9.0 | 10.5 | 7.3 | 2.1 | 74 | 58
285,310 | 9.4 | 8.4 | 10.2 | 7 | 2.1 | 76 | 58
+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------
| (5) | (5) | (5) | (5) | (5) | (5) | (5)
Averages| 9.6 | 8.6 | 10 | 6.9 | 2.1 | 74 | 57
--------+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------

[32] Arrangement of cases based on Facial Angle.

[33] The “subnasal point” of the writer is the lowest point on the inferior border of the nasal aperture on the left side: it is the point from which the height of the nose is measured.

An extended and meritorious report on the naso-alveolo-basilar angle such as here described was published in 1909 and 1910 by Dr. P. Rivet,[34] who commenced its determination independently by the same method as that of the present writer and almost simultaneously with him; but no comparisons are as yet available in regard to the alveolar angle. It appears from Rivet’s data that among modern white adults the average of the facial angle, as herein defined, ranges in round numbers from 70.5° to 73°;[35] among the negroes, the mean of Rivet’s series gives 68.5°; among several groups of American Indians it was 68° to 71.5°. Rivet calculated his indexes mathematically and with the help of an “abaque,” while the writer obtained his results by the direct (graphic) method, which, for small series of calculations and used with precision, seems to him preferable, although the results are probably quite comparable. By this method the writer obtained on the Arkansas and Louisiana crania, previously reported, averages ranging for the facial index from 70° to 74° for the males, and 68° to 70° for the females; while the alveolar angle gave the average of 55° to 60° in the males, and 51° to 53° in the females. The Munsee crania give the rather high average of 73° for the males and 74° for the females, with respect to the facial angle, and 59° in the males with 57° in the females for the alveolar angle. These figures indicate that both the facial and the alveolar protrusion in the Munsee was exceedingly moderate for a group of Indians, although in a measure the height of the indexes is due to the shortness of the face.

[34] _L’Anthropologie_, xx, 1909, pp. 35 et seq., 175 et seq.; 1910, pp. 505, 637.

[35] An exceptional group of Wends reached 76.5°.

PALATE

It was possible to obtain satisfactory measurements of the palate (or, more strictly speaking, the upper alveolar arch) in 13 instances, which, in view of the usually frequent defects of the arch, is a good proportion of the cases. The measurements and indexes follow Turner’s method, which is quite satisfactory.[36] The greatest length recorded by Turner in 20 European male and 8 European female skulls was 6 cm., the smallest 4.7 cm.; the greatest breadth 6.9 cm., the smallest 5.6 cm. The same measurements among the Munsee range, if we take both sexes together, from 5.1 cm. to 6 cm. for length and 5.9 cm. to 7.2 cm. for breadth, showing both dimensions, though more especially the breadth, to be slightly superior in these Indians to what they are in whites. The palatal or “uranic” index averaged, in Turner’s whites, 116.2 in the males and 115.6 in the females; in the Munsee the averages are 120.7 for the former and 120.5 for the latter sex, showing the palate in these Indians to be more “brachy-uranic,” or relatively broader. The sexual differences in both Turner’s and the present series are so small as to be practically negligible. In the different groups of Arkansas and Louisiana crania, reported in 1909 by the writer, the average palatal index ranged from 116 to 122 in the males and from 115 to 122 in the females—conditions very similar to those shown in the present observations.

It may here be pointed out that the whole subject of the dimensions of the palate or alveolar arch in the different races, and especially in the different types of skull, needs investigation. As it is, the variety in the dimensions and shape of these structures, and especially their correlation with the rest of the face and skull, are only imperfectly understood.

[36] Length: “From the alveolar point to a line drawn across the hinder borders of the maxillary bones. Breadth: Maximum external just above the molar teeth.”

MALE SKULL, NO. 99-6669, A.M.N.H., FROM MANHATTAN ISLAND (SIDE VIEW)]