Abstract
I WISH to place before comparative anatomists and anthropologists a question which has been encumbered by some misleading inaccuracies, in a recent communication by Dr. J. Barnard Davis to the Anthropological Institute, (“On Ancient Peruvian Skulls” Journ. Anthropol. Inst., vol. iii., p. 94). So early as 1857, in communications to the British Association, and to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, I showed, in opposition to the views of Dr. Morton, and of all American ethnologists up to that date, that a dolichocephalic type of head is characteristic of certain widely diffused American races. At a later date I set forth, in “Prehistoric Man,” my reasons for believing that this, which is now universally acknowledged as true in general, may be specifically asserted of the ancient Peruvians. This latter proposition Dr. Davis undertakes to refute; it is not a mere matter of personal controversy, but a question of some ethnical significance. As a Canadian, I lie outside of the charmed circles of home science and criticism, and only receive tardy news even of such communications as this, in which I have a personal interest.
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WILSON, D. The Long Peruvian Skull . Nature 10, 46–48 (1874). https://doi.org/10.1038/010046a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/010046a0