Chapter III: Relation of Averages of Measurements Relating to Size of Vault

IN MALES AND FEMALES
(Males = 100)
-------------+-------------+--------+------+-------+---------+------
| Number of | | | | |
Group | specimens |Capacity|Module|Circum-| Nasion- |Thick-
+-----+-------+ | |ference|opisthion| ness
|Males|Females| | | | arc |
-------------+-----+-------+--------+------+-------+---------+------
Arkansas[21] | 19 | 14 | 86.5 |96 | 96 | 96.5 | 92.5
Louisiana[22]| 12 | 7 | 89.5 |96 | 97 | 98 | 88
Munsee | | | | | | |
(excepting | | | | | | |
no. 285,308) | 6 | 9 | 85.0 |95.5 | 96 | 94.5 | 88
-------------+-----+-------+--------+------+-------+---------+------

[21] From A. Hrdlička, Report on an Additional Collection of Skeletal Remains from Arkansas and Louisiana, _Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila._, XIV, 1909, pp. 171-249.

[22] From A. Hrdlička, Report on an Additional Collection of Skeletal Remains from Arkansas and Louisiana, _Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila._, XIV, 1909, pp. 171-249.

These data are of interest in a number of additional particulars. In the first place, it is seen that, barring capacity, a striking similarity exists in the relation of female to male measurements in the different groups of Indians. There are reasons to believe that such resemblances are not confined to these tribes alone or even to Indians generally, but extend, with a limited range of variation, to all races.

Another remarkable fact is that the external measurements of the skull, especially the mean diameter or module, and the circumference show practically identical percental relations in the two sexes, averaging each about 96 for the female to 100 for the male; while in capacity the difference is decidedly greater (less than 90 to 100) in favor of the male, notwithstanding the fact that the thickness of the female skulls averages smaller. In other words, a female skull only nine-tenths as thick as that of a male and which gives external measurements that compare with those of the male cranium in a ratio of 96 to 100, will stand in respect to its internal capacity toward the male skull as only 88 or 89 to 100. The cause of this must be attributed to the unequal build, in the two sexes, of those parts of the skull which are not reached by the ordinary external measurements, and the narrower and especially the lower frontal region in the female plays probably a large part in this connection.

RELATION OF SIZE OF SKULL TO STATURE

The size of the head, as is well known, increases with stature. This increase is not uniform, but progresses in a diminishing ratio. The fact holds true in all races, though the exact values of the ratio with the different racial elements have not as yet been determined definitely. In the case of skeletal remains, in which it is not possible to learn the exact stature, the most suitable manner of obtaining light on the subject is to compare the length of the femur with the cranial capacity, by which means we ascertain the number of cubic centimeters of the capacity that correspond to each centimeter of the length of the femur. The following data give the results of such a comparison among the Munsee and on Indian skeletal remains from Arkansas and Louisiana.[23]

[23] Published by the writer in his _Report on an Additional Collection_, etc., op. cit., 1909, pp. 179, 188.