Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-02-02
some Popular science.

spreading Sc1entlhc Ideas among the peo-
pie. The reader will therefore under
stand the pleasure it gives us to lay be-
fore him an abstract of a 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 i'll an
ethnic, sometimes in a phylogenetic and
again in linguistic sense, and is ap-
piled, moreover, both to dolichocephallc
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 or
other adventitious 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 Englishmans
masseters and temporals weigh sixty
grams. We always thought it was more
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 microcephalic and mesodontal bush
man is orthognathous, while that of the
macrodontal and microcephalic Austria
Ian is prognathous We can even take
III III tudb luetOplSiu 10 idlo oAlohS Ait
crocephalic races. There is apparently
nothing contrary to Scripture in that.
But when we are expected to believe that
the alveolar arch of the macrodont is
hypseloid, and that both the leptorhint
Eskimo and the platyrhine Australian
have greater nasal index than that o
the leptorhine Englishman, we are in
clined 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 tn
orbital cavity of the microseme Austria
liam and the megaseme Kanaka is large
than that of the mesoseme Englishman
All Of us can agree cheerfully to tn
statement that microdontism and mega
cephaly have been acquired at som
stage in the ancestral history Of the race
And if there is anything we do believ
with enthusiasm it is the following:
But there is underlying all these no unifyiT
hypothesis, so that when we in our sesquiped
Ian jargon describe an Australian skull
microcephalic, phBnozygous, tapeino-dohch
| cephalic, prognathic, platyrhine, hypselopali
| tine, leptostaphyline doLichuranic, cham@pr'
| sopic and microseme we are no nearer to tn
formulation Of any philosophic concept Of tn
general principles which have led to the as
sumption of these characters by the craniur
In question.