Blood, sweat and plaster casts: Reviewing the history, composition, and scientific value of the Raymond A. Dart Collection of African Life and Death Masks.

This paper addresses the history, composition and scientific value of one of the most comprehensive facemask collections in Africa, the Raymond A. Dart Collection of African Life and Death Masks. Housed within the School of Anatomical Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), it comprises 1110 masks (397 life, 487 death, 226 unknown). Life masks represent populations throughout Africa; death masks predominately southern Africa. Males preponderate by 75%. Recorded ages are error prone, but suggest most life masks are those of <35 year-olds, death masks of 36+ year-olds. A total of 241 masks have associated skeletons, 209 presenting a complete skull. Life masks date between 1927 and c.1980s, death masks 1933 and 1963. This historical collection presents uncanny associations with outmoded typological and evolutionary theories. Once perceived an essential scientific resource, performed craniofacial superimpositions identify the nose as the only stable feature maintained, with the remaining face best preserved in young individuals with minimal body fat. The facemask collection is most viable for teaching and research within the history of science, specifically physical anthropology, and presents some value to craniofacial identification. Future research will have to be conducted with appropriate ethical considerations to science and medicine.

The vanishing Black Indian: Revisiting craniometry and historic collections.

OBJECTIVES: This article uses craniometric allocation as a platform for discussing the legacy of Samuel G. Morton's collection of crania, the process of racialization, and the value of contextualized biohistoric research perspectives in biological anthropology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Standard craniometric measurements were recorded for seven Seminoles in the Samuel G. Morton Crania Collection and 10 European soldiers from the Fort St. Marks Military Cemetery; all individuals were men and died in Florida during the 19th century. Fordisc 3.1 was used to assess craniometric affinity with respect to three samples: the Forensic Data Bank, Howells data set, and an archival sample that best fits the target populations collected from 19th century Florida. Discriminant function analyses were used to evaluate how allocations change across the three comparative databases, which roughly reflect a temporal sequence. RESULTS: Most Seminoles allocated as Native American, while most soldiers allocated as Euro-American. Allocation of Seminole crania, however, was unstable across analysis runs with more individuals identifying as African Americans when compared to the Howells and Forensic Data Bank. To the contrary, most of the soldiers produced consistent allocations across analyses. Repeatability for the St. Marks sample was lower when using the archival sample database, contrary to expectations. For the Seminole crania, Cohen's κ indicates significantly lower repeatability. A possible Black Seminole individual was identified in the Morton Collection. DISCUSSION: Recent articles discussing the merits and weaknesses of comparative craniometry focus on methodological issues. In our biohistoric approach, we use the patterning of craniometric allocations across databases as a platform for discussing social race and its development during the 19th century, a process known as racialization. Here we propose that differences in repeatability for the Seminoles and Euro-American soldiers reflect this process and transformation of racialized identities during 19th century U.S. nation-building. In particular, notions of whiteness were and remain tightly controlled, while other racial categorizations were affected by legal, social, and political contexts that resulted in hybridity in lieu of boundedness.

Morphological change in cranial shape following the transition to agriculture across western Eurasia.

The Neolithic transition brought about fundamental social, dietary and behavioural changes in human populations, which, in turn, impacted skeletal morphology. Crania are shaped through diverse genetic, ontogenetic and environmental factors, reflecting various elements of an individual's life. To determine the transition's effect on cranial morphology, we investigated its potential impact on the face and vault, two elements potentially responding to different influences. Three datasets from geographically distant regions (Ukraine, Iberia, and the Levant plus Anatolia) were analysed. Craniometric measurements were used to compare the morphology of pre-transition populations with that of agricultural populations. The Neolithic transition corresponds to a statistically significant increase only in cranial breadth of the Ukrainian vaults, while facial morphology shows no consistent transformations, despite expected changes related to the modification of masticatory behaviour. The broadening of Ukrainian vaults may be attributable to dietary and/or social changes. However, the lack of change observed in the other geographical regions and the lack of consistent change in facial morphology are surprising. Although the transition from foraging to farming is a process that took place repeatedly across the globe, different characteristics of transitions seem responsible for idiosyncratic responses in cranial morphology.

Reconsidering "The inappropriateness of conventional cephalometrics".

Of all the articles on cephalometrics this journal has published over the last half-century, the one most cited across the scientific literature is the 1979 lecture "The inappropriateness of conventional cephalometrics" by Robert Moyers and me. But the durable salience of this article is perplexing, as its critique was misdirected (it should have been aimed at the craniometrics of the early twentieth century, not merely the roentgenographic extension used in the orthodontic clinic) and its proposed remedies have all failed to establish themselves as methods of any broad utility. When problems highlighted by Moyers and me have been resolved at all, the innovations that resolved them owe to tools very different from those suggested in our article and imported from fields quite a bit farther from biometrics than we expected back in 1979. One of these tools was the creation de novo of a new abstract mathematical construction, statistical shape space, in the 1980s and 1990s; another was a flexible and intuitive new graphic, the thin-plate spline, for meaningfully and suggestively visualizing a wide variety of biological findings in these spaces. On the other hand, many of the complaints Moyers and I enunciated back in 1979, especially those stemming from the disarticulation of morphometrics from the explanatory styles and purposes of clinical medicine, remain unanswered even today. The present essay, a retrospective historical meditation, reviews the context of the 1979 publication, its major themes, and its relevance today. This essay is dedicated to the memory of Robert E. Moyers on the 100th anniversary of the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics.

History of imaging in orthodontics from Broadbent to cone-beam computed tomography.

The history of imaging and orthodontics is a story of technology informing biology. Advances in imaging changed our thinking as our understanding of craniofacial growth and the impact of orthodontic treatment deepened. This article traces the history of imaging in orthodontics from the invention of the cephalometer by B. Holly Broadbent in 1930 to the introduction of low-cost, low-radiation-dose cone-beam computed tomography imaging in 2015.

Evolution of esthetic considerations in orthodontics.

The importance of facial esthetics to the practice of orthodontics has its origins at the beginning of our specialty. In 1900, Edward H. Angle believed that an esthetic or a "harmonious" face required a full complement of teeth, but many who came after him questioned this notion. In the 1930s, the development of cephalometrics laid the foundation for studying growth and development, treatment effects, facial forms, and esthetics. By the 1950s, the importance of diagnosing and planning treatment for an esthetic result was established, but the measurement of soft tissue variables was lacking, and this became an important area of research. In the 1970s, researchers were looking at the stability of hard tissue changes over time, and they were also interested in how the soft tissues change with age. Although the early studies of esthetics in orthodontic treatment focused on how clinicians viewed their patients, changing demographics and cultural attitudes led researchers to look more seriously at consumer preferences and the public's attitudes. Their findings--that consumers preferred fuller lips--led to a swing back toward nonextraction treatment. Expansion appliances and molar distalization techniques became popular, and surgical procedures to obtain more ideal esthetic results became more common. Since the 1990s, advances in computers and technology have allowed us to study, predict, and produce esthetic results previously thought unattainable. Today, more so than at any other time in our specialty, we have the ability to provide esthetic results to our patients.

Remeasuring man.

Samuel George Morton (1799-1851) was the most highly regarded American scientist of the early and middle 19th century. Thanks largely to Stephen Jay Gould's book The Mismeasure of Man, Morton's cranial capacity measurements of different races is now held up as a prime example of and cautionary tale against scientific racism. A team of anthropologists recently reevaluated Morton's work and argued that it was Gould, not Morton, who was biased in his analysis. This article is a reexamination of the Morton and Gould controversy. It argues that most of Gould's arguments against Morton are sound. Although Gould made some errors and overstated his case in a number of places, he provided prima facia evidence, as yet unrefuted, that Morton did indeed mismeasure his skulls in ways that conformed to 19th century racial biases. Gould's critique of Morton ought to remain as an illustration of implicit bias in science.

Technical note: comparability of Hrdlicka's Catalog of Crania data based on measurement landmark definitions.

Archival sources of data are critical anthropological resources that inform inferences about human biology and evolutionary history. Craniometric data are one of the most widely available sources of information on human population history because craniometrics were critical in early 20th century debates about race and biological variation. As such, extensive databases of raw craniometric data were published at the same time that the field was working to standardize measurement protocol. Hrdlicka published between 10 and 16 raw craniometric variables for over 8,000 individuals in a series of seven catalogs throughout his career. With a New World emphasis, Hrdlicka's data complement those of Howells (1973, 1989) and the two databases have been combined in the past. In this note we verify the consistency of Hrdlicka's measurement protocol throughout the Catalog series and compare these definitions to those used by Howells. We conclude that 12 measurements are comparable throughout the Catalogs, with five of these equivalent to Howells' measurements: maximum cranial breadth (XCB), basion-bregma height (BBH), maximum bizygomatic breadth (ZYB), nasal breadth (NLB), and breadth of the upper alveolar arch (MAB). Most of Hrdlicka's measurements are not strictly comparable to those of Howells, thus limiting the utility of combined datasets for multivariate analysis. Four measurements are inconsistently defined by Hrdlicka and we recommend not using these data: nasal height, orbit breadth, orbit height, and menton-nasion height. This note promotes Hrdlicka's tireless efforts at data collection and re-emphasizes observer error as a legitimate concern in craniometry as the field shifts to morphometric digital data acquisition.

Cefalograma resumido de Ricketts: análisis por grupos étnicos y sexos en niños de 9 años / Summarized Ricketts' cephalogram: analysis by ethnic groups and genre in 9 years-old children

Se realizó un estudio descriptivo transversal en niños de 9 años de edad residentes en la ciudad de Matanzas, con el objetivo de determinar la existencia de diferencias significativas entre grupos étnicos y sexos mediante la aplicación del cefalograma resumido de Ricketts. Se tomó una muestra de 63 niños que se dividieron en 4 grupos (europoides masculinos, europoides femeninos, negroides masculinos y negroides femeninos). A todos los niños se les realizaron telerradiografías laterales de cráneos, de éstas se obtuvieron los calcos cefalométricos sobre los cuales se trazó el cefalograma resumido de Ricketts. Se estudiaron 11 variables, comprobándose mediante análisis estadísticos que 4 de éstas presentaban diferencias significativas entre los grupos étnicos, pero no entre los sexos cuando pertenecían al mismo grupo étnico. Estos hallazgos son de gran importancia al realizar el diagnóstico individual y determinar la conducta a seguir en el tratamiento de cada paciente.

A descriptive transversal study was carried out in 9 years-old children living in the city of Matanzas, with the objective of determining the existence of significant differences between ethnic groups and genres applying the summarized Ricketts´ cephalogram. We took a sample of 63 children divided into 4 groups (male Europoid, female Europoid, male Negroid, and female Negroid). Lateral cranial teleradiography were made to all the children and summarized Ricketts´ cephalograms were traced on them. 11 variables were studied, stating by statistical analysis that 4 of them had significant differences between ethnic groups, but not between genres when the subjects belonged to the same ethnic group. These findings are very important when diagnosing individuals and determining the behavior to follow in treating each patient.

James Willocks and the innovation of fetal cephalometry.

James Willocks (1928-2004), a Glasgow obstetrician, was an important pioneer of obstetric ultrasound and the originator of the first clinically useful technique of fetal cephalometry. He collaborated with Tom Duggan, an engineer, who designed and built an electronic cephalometer to be used in conjunction with a Kelvin Hughes industrial flaw detector. Working in the Royal Maternity Hospital, Willocks was able to measure the biparietal diameter to an accuracy of better than 2mm. This major innovation enabled fetal growth in the third trimester to be accurately charted and thus greatly improved the detection of placental insufficiency, as well as the management of antepartum haemorrhage, hypertension and other complications of late pregnancy.

[History of cranial surgery, cerebral tumor surgery and epilepsy surgery in Mexico]. / Historia de la cirugía de cráneo, de los tumores cerebrales y de la epilepsia en México.

The first report of intra-cerebral tumor surgery was provided by Bennett & Goodle, in London, 1884. Worldwide this kind of surgery was performed in France by Chipault, in Italy by Durante, in the United States by Keen and in Deutchland by Krause & Oppenheim. Lavista in Mexico City operated on intra-cerebral tumor in 1891, and the report was printed in 1892. In the same publication, Lavista exhibited the first cases of epilepsy surgery. Since now, it is the first report of this kind of surgery in the Spanish-speaking world.

Theodor Kocher's craniometer.

The first half of the 20th century witnessed the rapid emergence of neurological surgery as a surgical subspecialty. Only few surgeons made a name for themselves equally in general surgery and neurological surgery. One of them was the Swiss surgeon Theodor Kocher (1841-1917). He was honored with the Nobel Prize for his innovative approaches to pathology and surgery of the thyroid gland. Kocher also attracted students from all over the world to his laboratory to study the pathology of neurotrauma and the consequences of increased intracranial pressure on brain function. One of his most interesting contributions to the neurosurgical equipment of his time is a craniometer, used to correlate the location of intracranial pathology to landmarks on the surface of the cranium. Craniometers can be seen as simple forerunners of today's sophisticated stereotactic frames. They contributed significantly to the advancement of neurological surgery, allowing localization of known functional centers as well as lesions of the brain in a 3-dimensional system.

Estimation and representation of head size (people overestimate the size of their head - evidence starting from the 15th century).

The head is a special part of our body since we do not see it directly. Four experiments were conducted to verify what healthy people know about the size of their head. As a control, we used the accuracy in estimating other people's heads (in all the experiments) and the estimation of the size of another part of the body, the hand (in Experiment 4). Results showed that people overestimate their own head size compared to its actual size when visual information is not provided (Experiments 1-4). They also overestimate their head size compared to the heads of others whether viewed directly (Experiment 1) or from memory (Experiment 2). Overestimation with respect to the actual size is reduced when visual information is provided (Experiments 1 and 4) and when proprioception is (presumably) increased by wearing a headband (Experiment 3). Overestimation with respect to actual size is not found for hands (Experiment 4). In the final study evidence emerged of head size overestimation in self-portraits as compared to portraits of others.