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



resemblance which may confirm the supposition that there is affinity 

 between them, or whether, on the contrary, a sufficient degree of 

 dissimilarity can be made out, from an accurate examination, to en- 

 title us to set them down as separate races, and to class them with 

 different grand divisions of the human species ; whether, in short, 

 these differences, if any such are found, are more than can be ac- 

 counted for by the diversity of climate and modes of life which are 

 well known long to have existed between them. 



The examination of these skulls for the purpose of furnishing an 

 accurate description of their appearance is interesting in another 

 point of view. In Scandinavia and in Denmark there are numerous 

 tumuli which contain osteological remains of former inhabitants, and 

 it is a disputed point whether they are the remains of a Finnish ab- 

 original stock or of Cimbrian or some unknown race, since they differ 

 from the old German remains. Now if we could establish a correct 

 notion of the Finnish description of skull, we should have no diffi- 

 culty in deciding whether the remains before mentioned belonged to 

 this stock. 



Having four specimens of these skulls, two of Finns and two of 

 Laplanders, which my father has received through the kindness of 

 Dr. Ilmoni and Mr. Daniel Wheeler, of Bristol, I have an opportunity 

 of examining their peculiarities and of comparing them with each 

 other and with the skulls of other Europeans, Chinese, American 

 Indian, and the Esquimaux, the latter of which is a most remarkable 

 specimen of the pyramidal and broad-faced skull. 



Upon taking a general view of these skulls, there are no remark- 

 able features which strike us so forcibly as those which we see in the 

 conformation of the Esquimaux. In fact, the only point worthy of 

 notice here, before we commence the particular description, is a de- 

 gree of general breadth in the face superior to that wliich is seen ii^ 

 the European generally, which gives to the whole an appearance of 

 squareness when the lower jaw is attached, and causes the actual 

 shortness of the face, which is remarkable in these skulls, to become 

 still more apparent. The general resemblance between the Finnish 

 skulls and those of the Lappes is as strong as between four average 

 European crania, even belonging to the same nation, and altogether 

 their contour decidedly approaches what Blumenbach calls the Mon- 

 golian form of skull, the head appearing, as it has been noticed by 

 an ocular observer, ' of the shape of a pent-house.' 



It will be found, however, that it is more especially in a close 

 and minute examination that differences are seen to exist between 

 the Lappes and Finns on the one hand, and the European skulls on 

 the other. 



Viewed from above and behind, there is a slight difference obser- 

 vable between the Finn and the Lappe : the posterior part of the Lappe 

 is larger than the anterior, while the form of the Finn is more regu- 

 lar and rounded ; that is, the line between the parietal protuberances 

 exceeds the transverse diameter of the forehead more in the Lappe 

 than in the Finn. I find, however, that there is equal difference 

 in this respect between two European skulls even of the same nation. 



