FEBRUARY 27TH, 1883. Professor W. H. FLOWER, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. The Minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. The following presents were announced, and thanks voted to the respective donors: FOR THE LIBRARY. From C. H. E. CARMICHAEL, Esq., M.A.-Giornale degli Eruditi e Curiosi. October, 1882. From Professor AGASSIZ.-Annual Report of the Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, for 1881-2. From Dr. EMILE HOLUB.-Aus der Rotunde. By G. Waldhaus. From Dr. W. J. HOFFMAN.-San Francisco Western Lancet. October, 1882. From SEC. DE ESTADO Y DEL DESPACHO DE FOMENTO.-Movimiento de Poblacion habido en los pueblos de la Republica de Guatemala durante el año de 1881. From the GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF LISBON.-La Question du Zaire Droits du Portugal. From the AUTHOR.-Indian Pictured Rocks of Guiana. Winter. By A. I Cranii de' Marsi. By Giustiniano Nicolucci. Oesterreichische Afrika-Expedition. By Dr. Emil Holub. Some Hindú Folksongs, from the Punjáb. By Lieut. R. C. From the ACADEMY.-Nova Acta Academiæ Cæsarea Leopoldino- Atti della R. Accademia dei Lincei. Transunti. Vol. VII, Fas. 3. Memorie della Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali. Vols. IX, X. From the SOCIETY.-Journal of the Society of Arts. Nos. 1578, 1579. Bulletins de la Sociétié d'Anthropologie de Paris. 1882, Boletim da Sociedade de Geographia de Lisboa. No. 6. From the SOCIETY.-Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow. Vol. Schriften der Physikalisch-ökonomischen Gesellschaft zu From the EDITOR.-Correspondenz-Blatt. Nos. 1, 2, 1883. 66 Revue Scientifique. Tom. XXXI, Nos. 19, 20. Revue Politique et Littéraire. Tom. XXXI, Nos. 7, 8. The election of CHARLES FOUNTAINE WALKER, Esq., was announced. Dr. GARSON exhibited and explained some photographs of cases of Hypertrichosis, upon which the President made a few remarks. Notes on PHOTOGRAPHS ILLUSTRATING CASES of HYPERTRICHOSIS. By Dr. J. G. GARSON. The photographs which I exhibit were sent some years ago from Mandalay to the late Mr. Maunder (by the courtesy of whose widow I have the pleasure of showing them to-night), and represent the well-known hairy family, consisting of a grandfather, his daughter, and her son. The first was born in 1799, and was presented when a boy to the King of Ava; at the age of twenty-two he married a woman whose skin was normal, and had four children, three of whom (males) were normal; the youngest (a daughter), however, was hairy like her father. She, in due course, married a man whose hair was normal, and had two sons, both of whom were hairy. The history of the family has been recorded and commented on in two very able papers by Dr. Bartels, in the "Zeitschrift für Ethnologie," 1879. The presence at the Westminster Aquarium of a child from Burma, called "Krao," whose body is covered more or less completely with hair, having brought the subject before us, I thought it might not be out of place to recall to mind this interesting family. The photographs which I exhibit show only an increased quantity of hair over the face, but another in Bartels' paper, which I hand round, shows that on the hands and legs hair was also developed, as it was over the whole body. To this development of hair on abnormal parts of the body the name Hypertrichosis has been given, and it has been divided into two kinds: Hypertrichosis universalis, when it occurs over the whole body, and Hypertrichosis partialis, when only over limited portions, or in patches; the simplest form of this kind is a single hair developed in the centre of a wart, or a few hairs on a mole. The abnormality may consist, not in the locality of development of the Lair, but in the time of development; thus the development of a beard and whiskers on young lads, which sometimes occurs, must be considered abnormal. Or it may consist, not in the position of the hair-growth, but in the sex of the person; thus the development of whiskers on the adult female face is abnormal, though normal in an adult male. The abnormality of hair-development may, therefore, be of three kinds:-Heterotopic, as in the photographs now shown, and in the child "Krao"; Heterochronic, as in the case of boys developing a beard; or Heterogenic, as in bearded women. As to the cause of abnormal hair-growth, the Atavistic theory seems to me to be the most probable explanation, as here we would not have to trace the Atavus far back, and in the normal body we have the Atavistic germ present, though in a rudimentary condition. It would, therefore, be what Gegenbaur terms a paleogenetic form of Atavism. Mr. ALFRED TYLOR read a paper on "The Homological Nature of the Human Skeleton," illustrating his remarks by means of photographs projected on the screen by the lime-light. A discussion ensued, in which the PRESIDENT, Miss MARSHALL, Professor THANE, Dr. GARSON, Dr. BRUCE CLARKE, Mr. PARK HARRISON, and Mr. S. B. J. SKERTCHLEY took part, and the author replied. MARCH 13TH, 1883. Professor W. H. FLOWER, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. The Minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. The following presents were announced, and thanks voted to the respective donors: FOR THE LIBRARY. From Mrs. GUEST.-Origines Celtica. By Edwin Guest, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S. From the ACADEMY.-Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. Vol. III, Part 2. Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philos.-Histor. Classe. 1882, 100 Band, Hefte 1, 2; 101 Band, Heft 1. Math.-Naturw. Classe. I, Abthlg., 1882, Nos. 1-3, 4, 5; II, Abthlg., 1882, Nos. 3-6; III, Abthlg., 1882, Nos. 1-3, 5-7. Register X. Almanack, 1882. From the SOCIETY.-Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, March, 1883. - Journal of the Society of Arts. Nos. 1580, 1581, From the EDITOR.-- Bulletino di Paletnologia Italiana. Index and Anno 8°. "Nature." Nos. 696, 697. Revue Scientifique. Tom. XXXI, Nos. 9, 10. Revue Politique et Littéraire. Tom. XXXI, Nos. 9, 10. The DIRECTOR read the following paper, which had been communicated to the Institute by Mr. John Evans: On the ETHNOLOGY of TIMOR-LAUT. By H. O. FORBES, Esq.1 AFTER an interesting voyage, in which we called at Gesser, at the east end of Ceram; at two ports of New Guinea, and then at both the Ke and the Aru Islands, we landed, on July 13th, 1882, at the village of Ritabel, in the islet of Larat, which lies about fifteen minutes' sail off the north-east coast of Yamdena, as the northern of the two portions of Timor-laut is named. SKETCH-MAP SHOWING POSITION OF TIMOR-LAUT IN RELATION TO THE NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS. Our first concern was to get a house, for all the native huts are so very small that housing our baggage or working in them was quite out of the question. A site was obtained only after the most vexatious delays. In one place it could not be had, because superstitious fear was in the way, and in another because their neighbours of the next villages would be angry This paper formed part of a Report which was sent by Mr. Forbes to the Committee appointed by the British Association for the purpose of investigating the Natural History of Timor-laut, and was transmitted by this Committee to the Institute through Mr. John Evans, F.R.S., V.P. if I built a new house, without their consent and advice. The difficulty was at last got over, after several days' bitjara, by my purchasing two houses at some distance and erecting them within the village boundary-this was not building a new house! Even after this the greatest difficulty was experienced in obtaining assistance and in fetching additional bamboos, as they grew near the dreaded Keleobar people. Our first acquaintance with the inhabitants was on board the vessel before we landed. At first a boat came out to reconnoitre, and on its return to land, evidently with a favourable report, several boats came alongside and landed on us their crews of men only; on a former occasion of a steamer lying along the shore more to the south-east both men and women fearlessly scrambled on board. They were handsome-featured fellows, tall, erect, and with splendidly formed bodies, with their long hair carefully combed out, girt with black, red, and white patchwork bands round the forehead and occiput, the hair being transfixed with a long skewer-like comb, and then hanging down to the shoulders. It is dyed a rich golden colour, varying, however, according to the time between the application of the dye, from a dirty grey through a red or russet colour to the approved shade. Very few show true frizzled hair, and it is quite different from the hair seen on the Papuans of McClure Inlet, New Guinea, or among the Aru Islanders. Perhaps the dyeing of the hair may affect the growth of it: samples for microscopical examination will be, however, sent along with the collections. No clothing is worn, save the narrow T-shaped loin cloth, decorated at the end hanging down in front with red, black and white patch work, and adorned with sections of cowrie shells and with beads. The women wear a short sarong of native manufacture, with artistic patterns from the aloan palm (Borassus flabelliformis), bound by a broad belt made from the light stem of the same palm, with an elegant buckle which is often very richly carved, and is frequently the gift of the husband at the time he purchases his wife, and represents a sort of sign of engagement. The men wear numerous armlets made from the shells of a species of conus; the women also wear these, but frequently they have heavy anklets of brass and rings on their toes. Both sexes wear also armlets of brass or ivory or wood, carved like those worn by the Hill Dyaks of Borneo.1 In their ears the women wear a graduated series of earrings in the lobe A collection of ethnological objects was sent home by Mr. Forbes, and a selection of them has been presented to the Christy Collection, through the liberality of the Royal Society. Mr. Read, on behalf of Mr. Franks, kindly exhibited a selection of specimens on the occasion of the reading of the paper, and has furnished a list which will be found on p. 23. |