Dr. Prichard on the Crania of the Finns and Lappes. 497 



by direct experiment; but that respecting the momentary ac- 

 tion of heat developed amongst the molecules must, I fear, 

 remain as a theory, to be judged of by its ability to explain a 

 difficulty not easily surmountable otherwise. It is however, 

 as I have already stated, manifestly a vera causa actually pre- 

 sent, and it would not perhaps be impossible to form some 

 rough estimate as to the probable extent of its influence. 

 Bath, April 19, 1845. 



LXXI. On the Crania of the Laplanders and Finlanders, 

 with observations on the differences they present from other 

 European races. By James C. Prichard, M.D.* 



LITTLE has hitherto been done to elucidate the physical cha- 

 racters of the Ugrian or Ugorian races, under which term 

 late writers have comprised the Finns and Lappes, the Magyars or 

 Hungarians, and several nations of Siberiaf. 



This is owing to the fact that but few specimens of the skulls of 

 these nations exist in any of the collections in Europe, and few and 

 by no means perfect descriptions of them have been published. 

 Blumenbach has given in his ' Decades Craniorum' a representation 

 of the skull of a Lappe, and he describes it as approaching altogether 

 to the Mongolian variety. Dr. Hueck gives an account of the ap- 

 pearance and general physical characters of the Esthonian Finns, 

 and sums up his observations by pointing out some very considerable 

 diiferences which he finds between them and the Mongolian form ; 

 in fact he says that he can discover nothing common to the Mongo- 

 lian and Esthonian skulls, except a certain squareness of figure, which 

 is not constant. 



From these statements we should be led to suppose that there is 

 a great difference between the skulls of the Finns and Lappes, and we 

 should be inclined to adopt the opinion maintained by Lehrberg, 

 that they are two separate and distinct races, his argument being 

 founded upon the moral as well as the physical diversities between 

 them J. 



On the other hand, the history of the people, and especially the 

 great similarity of their languages, go far to prove a near relationship 

 between the Finnish and Lappish nations ; nor is a greater or less de- 

 gree of civilization to be looked upon as a proof of diversity of origin, 

 although it may be the cause of all the moral, and possibly of the phy- 

 sical difi^erences also, which exist between the Finns and Lappes. 



From this uncertainty it becomes much more important to ascer- 

 tain, by the examination of their skulls, what the physical character- 

 istics of each nation are, and whether they exhibit any points of 



* From the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for August 13, 1844. 



f Der Ugrische Volkstamm von F. H. Miiller. 



I Lehrberg, iiber die Wolmsitte der Jemen, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte 

 Neu-Finnlands, in Untersuchungen zur Erlaiitermig der alten Geschichte 

 Russlands. 



Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 26. No. 1 75. June 1 845. 2 L 



