CRANIOMETRY ANT) CRANIO GRAPHT. 349 



part of the skeleton, therefore, that the labours of the Comparative 

 Anthropologist have necessarily been mainly devoted. 



The study is of course chiefly of a morphological nature, and de- 

 pends therefore for its data upon measurement and delineation. 



Hence have arisen the arts of Craniometry and Craniograpiiy, 

 which form the subjects of the follovi^ing observations. 



Easy as it might at first sight seem to be to contrive such a system 

 of measurement, as would suffice to give a tolerably good notion of 

 the capacity and relative proportions of the cranium, it has not been 

 found so easy in practice ; a.nd although to an artist it may appear 

 a facile task to produce a faithful picture of a skull, experience has 

 shown that the great majority of figures hitherto given ai'e absolutely 

 worthless for accurate comparison, or in fact for any scientific pur- 

 pose. 



For these reasons it happens that the expensive and valuable 

 materials for craniological enquiry collected in many places, have as 

 yet not been rendered so available to science as they might have been, 

 no means having hitherto been devised by so describing and delineat- 

 ing the objects contained in them as to render it needless for en- 

 quirers to visit the collections themselves, if they desire to institute 

 exact comparisons. 



This has arisen mainly from the want of a precise and common 

 plan of investigation, and of recording the observations made. 



Without some common plan of operations, it is extremely diffi- 

 cult, and in some respects impossible to institute such comparisons 

 between the data of different observers, as are alone sufficient for the 

 deduction from them of reliable general results. 



The necessity of some such accord among Anthropologists has 

 long been felt, and has daily become more and more imperative, as 

 the importance of their science has become more extensively perceived. 

 Inspired, by this need. Prof v. Baer, to whom science is already so 

 deeply indebted, in conjunction with Prof E. "Wagner, issued in 

 August, 1861, an invitation to a select number of Grerman and other 

 Craniologists to meet, in the, to them, classic town of Gottingen, and 

 confer upon the general interests of Anthropology, but more espe- 

 cially to agree, if they could, upon the adopting of some uniform system 

 of measurements, and upon some plan of making drawings, casts, or 

 other representations of the cranium. This meeting, which, as a pre- 

 liminary one, was purposely confined to a few, accordingly met in the 

 month of September, and consisted of Prof. v. Baer, E. Wagner, Vrolik, 

 Luc«, Bergmann, Meissner, and E. H. Weber, and one or two others, 

 whilst communications were received from Prof. Schaft'hausen and 

 Prof. Harting. Names alone sufficient to show the reliance that may be 

 placed upon the result of their deliberations, and highly auspicious for 

 the future progress of Anthropology. 



After some introductory observations from Prof v. Baer, who 

 Avorthily occupied the chair in such an assembly, in which he gave a 

 general and very interesting survey of the scope and state of Ant hro- 



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