The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-02-03
Some POPULAR Science.

If there IN anything we do enjoy il Is
spreading scientific ideas among the peo-
Pile. The reader will therefore under
stand the pleasure it gives us to lay be.
fore him an abstract of paper by
Alexander Macallister, NJ, D., f, r, S.,
on THE Study of Man" Professor Mac.
allister begins by calling old tin cans
rusty polyhedra." Take notice, please,
that an ancient sardine box is a rusty
polyhedron
Having got thus far with our scientific
education we proceed to the next point,
1t is that the word Celt is difficult to de-
fine because it is used sometimes in an
ethnic, sometimes in a phylogenetic and
again in a linguistic sense, and is APP
Piled, moreover, both to dolichocephalic
and brachycephalic races. This tends to
bring physical anthropology into con-
fusion, especially when the pseudo
morphs of earlier cultures add to the
perplexity Yes, indeed, professor.
Another mighty truth is that the larg
est part of the human skull, when un.
modified by premature synostosis OF
other adventurous conditions, owes its
form to that of the cerebral hemispheres
it contains, Just SO. Precious to us
too, is the information that the lowe.
jaw of the macrodontal races is heavier
than that of mesodontals. or microdont-
ais, and that the average Engfshman's
masseters and temporalsl weigh -
grams We always thought it was ihore
than that. This does not hinder macro-
donts from being frequently microcepha-
lie all the same, and in this case the jaw
is prognathous and the supraorbital ar
cade must be advanced to meet the
mandibular stroke. We suspected that.
At the period of second dentition there
is an extension of the mucosa of the an.
terror ethnoidal cell. We are not sur.
prised, therefore, to learn that the skull Of
the unacceptable and mesodontal bush
man is orthognathous, while that of the
nacroGontal and microcephalic Austria
Ian is prognathous. We can even take
| it in that metopism is rare among mi
crocephalic races. There is apparently
nothing contrary to Scripture in that
| ECt when we are expected to believe that
| the alveolar arch of the macrodont is
hypseloid, and that both the lcptorhin,
Eskimo and the platyrhine Australian
have greater nasal index than that Of
| the leptorhine Englishnan, we are in
clincd to doubt 1t does not sound or.
thodox; it doesn't really,
We turn with pleasure to things al
can accept, as, for instance. that tl.e
orbital cavity of the microscme Austria
| Ian and the megaseme Ka.laka is larger
than that Of the mcsoseme Englishman
| All of rs can ;:..rec cheerfully to I'll,
statement that microdontism and mega
copl&ly have been acquired at somC
stage in the ancestral history Of the race
And il there is anything we Go believe
with enthusiasm it is the following:
Int there is underlying all these 70 uDifyins
| hypothesis, so that when we in our sesquircda-
| Ian jGrgon describe an Australian 'ai.':ll n
| microccphalic. ph;onozygous, tapeino-dulicho
| cerhGiic, prognathic, platyrhine, hypselopala
| tine, lpitestGphylire, dolchurjtnic, cham2'pro
| sopic and microseme we are Eo nearer dis
| formulation of any philosophc co.ueSt Of AZ
| general principles which have led to the a.
| sumption of these characters by the Uranium
| in question.