[Hope of Filipino and American study.] The changes which will take place in the political condition of the Philippines may be of little service to scientific explorations at first; but the study of the population will be surely taken up with renewed energy.  Already in America scholars have begun to occupy themselves therewith.  A brief article by Dr. Brinton is to be mentioned as the first sign of this.  But should the ardent desire of the Filipinos be realized, that their islands hould have political autonomy, it is to be hoped that, out of the patriotic enthusiasm of the population and the scientific spirit of many of their best men, new sources of information will be opened for the history and the development of oriental peoples.  To this end it may be here mentioned, by the way, that the connecting links of ancient Philippine history and the customs of these islands, as well with the Melanesians as with the Polynesians of the south, are yet to be discovered.

As representatives of these two groups, I present, in closing, two especially well-formed crania from the Philippines.  One of them, which shows the marks of antiquity that I have set forth, belongs to an “Indio.” [Comparison of Indio and Negrito skulls.] It has the high cranial capacity of 1,540 cubic centimeters, a horizontal circumference of 525 millimeters, and a sagitta-circumference of 386 millimeters; its form is hypsidolicho, quite on the border of mesocephaly:  Index of width, 75.3; index of height, 76.3.  Besides, it has the appearance of a race capable of development; only, the nose is platyrrhine (index, 52.3), as among so many Malay tribes, and in the left temple it bears a Processus frontalis squamae temporalis developed partly from an enlarged fontanelle.  The other skull was one taken from a Negrito grave of Zambales by Dr. A. B. Meyer.  It makes, at first glance, just as favorable an impression, but its capacity is only 1,182 cubic centimeters; therefore 358 cubic centimeters less than the other.  Its form is orthobrachycephalic; breadth index, 80.2; height index, 70.6.  As in single traits of development, so in the measurements, the difference and the debased character of this race obtrude themselves.  Only, the nasal index is somewhat smaller; on the whole, the nose has in its separate parts a decidedly pithecoid form.

PART VI

People and Prospects of the Philippines

Blackwood’s magazine for August, 1818, has an account of conditions in Manila and the Philippines from data given by an English merchant who left the Islands in 1798 after twenty years’ residence in which he accumulated a fortune.

“Your first question, with respect to the Spanish population, must refer to native Spaniards only; as their numerous descendants, through all the variety of half-castes, would include one third at least of the whole population of Luconia (i.e., Luzon—­A.  C.)