Description of Two Skeletons of Akkas, a Pygmy Race from Central Africa

Abstract

SINCE the race of pygmy Negroes called Akkas', inhabiting the Monbotto country of Central Africa, were discovered by Schweinfurth, in the year 1870, they have received conlsiderable attention from various travellers and anthropologists, and general descriptions and measurements of several living individuals have been published, but no account of their osteological characters has hitherto been given.Nor have any specimens been submitted to careful anatomical examination.The two skeletons recently sent to the British Museum by Dr. Emin Pasha are, therefore, of much interest, and I trust that the following description of their more important features will be acceptable to the Institute.The skeletons are, unfortunately, very imperfect, but still most of the principal bonies are present, including the skulls of both, and the pelvis of one.They were both obtained by Emin Pasha in Monbotto, and are described by him as " a full grown male," and " a very old female."The skeleton of the male consists of the skull, with nearly perfect teeth; the vertebral coluran, with the exception of the five upper cervical vertebrae; most of the ribs; both scapulke (the left imperfect); all the principal bones of the limbs, but the clavicles and innominate bones are wanting.Part of the base of the cranium, including the condyles and the basion, has been unfortunately cut away.The condition of the bones arld teeth shows that it belongs to a full-grown, though not a quite adult person.The basi-cranial suture is closed, and consolidation of the sagittal and lambdoidal sutures has commenced rather premnaturely in comparison with the other indications of ag,e.The third molars are all fully in place, though quite unworn, and the surfaces of the other molars are only slightly abraded.The epiphyses of the upper end of the humerus and of the lower endl of the femur have but recently united to the shaft, the line of junction being perfectly distinct, and the epiphysis of the posterior border of the scapula is detached.t For a general account of our present knowledge of the Akkas, and their supposed idenitity with the Pygmies of Homer and Herodotus, and for refereneez to the literature of the race, see" Les Pygmees," by A. de

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