506 Miscellanea 



Remarks on Br C. S. Myeis' Note. 



Dr Myers scetus to liave entirely mistaken, not only the nature of Miss Fawcett's original 

 nieinoir bat of iiiy defeiice of tliat meinoir. A reply to hiiu inust have imich of the natvire of 

 tlie tiailitioiial figlit botwcen tlio hoi-se and tlio wliale. I have not nnah hope of convincing him 

 of the neoessity for lusing exaot niethods in Statistical enquiry, liut I have Iiojk! that a new school 

 of anthropologists will ai'ise, wlio will be able to choose between the old and the new paths. 



(i) Miss Fawcett started hoi- work on the Naqada crania, witliout I am snre any prejudice, 

 as to their hctcrogeneity or honiogeneity. The tost of the category into which they were to be 

 placed was not as Dr Myers siiggests a niere coinparison of these skiills with "four series which 

 were considered to be of an admittedly homogeneous character." On the contrary we were fully 

 aware of the view taken by certain Egyptologists, that the Naqada crania dift'ered widely from 

 those of the historic Egyptians, and fiirther tliat a whole series of races were supposed to have 

 occupied Egypt in prehistoi-ic times, and further that these races were reprcsented in this 

 series of crania. For this rea-son tlic crania were classitied into groups according to the antiquity 

 of the fragments found in the graves. This matter is dealt witli in pp. 422-3 of the menioir. 

 On the basis of this investigation no signititvvnt chronological dift'erences couKl detinitely be 

 predicted of the Naqada crania. This was the fii-st stage in Miss Fawcett's test. The second 

 stage was to compare the variability of the Naqada crania for length and breadth with the 

 known valiies for othcr series. Judged by both length and breadth they are less variable than 

 tlie "Altbayerisch" crania ; judged by length only than the Aino crania, both undoubtcdly very 

 homogeneous series. If the word "raco" is to be used at all, it may certainly be uscd of the 

 Ainos and Altbaiern, where for years close intermarriagc must have gone on*. Here, I think, 

 is jiossibly the source of some of my difference with Dr Myere. In my view any race may 

 originally have arisen from a mixture of races, l)ut such a mi.xcd race is wholly dißerent from 

 a mixture of races, which h.ive not interbred. It is with a mi.xture of races which have not 

 intcrbrcd, Australians, Ouanches, Eskimos and Chinese, that Dr Myers proposed to compare our 

 material. I said and I repeat now that our Naqada series belongs to a totally different order of 

 variability. Our English crania belong to one district and one pcriod, our French catacomb 

 crania to one district, but to a succe-ssion of periods, our Bavarian and Aino to very limited 

 districts with prubably close Inbreeding. The Naqada is as little variable as the least variable 

 of these serie.s. There appears accordingly no legitimate foundation for treating it a-s a series of 

 crania composed of individuals from such different races as the Egyptologists have suggested. 

 Dr Myers without having examined the Naqada crania, says that he has examined sufficient 

 " prehistoric " Egyptian skullst to be convinced that the Naqada series contains skuUs which 

 have markcdly negroid characters "between which and the more delicately chiselled features of 

 the Mediterranean and allied peoi)le.s thcrc is every gi-adation." There may be Naqada skulls 

 with negroid characters ; it is easy to a-s-scrt such to exist, and there is no finality to mere 

 matters of opinion, which cannot be put to a quantitative test. But the series has been examined 

 by anatomical craniologists of eqnal judgment with Dr Myers. Professor Sergi, who has seen 

 the crania, clas.sed them dcfinitely as belonging to Ins " Mediterranean race." Dr Myers who has 

 not .seen the crania tinds tliat they contain .skulls of negroid character which differ from those 

 of the Mediterranean peoplos. On the whole I think the biometrician can aftbrd to smile at the 

 judgments of the non-biometrical craniologists who presumcdly alone pay attention to the 

 " lessons which physical anthropology, philology and history teach us" ! 



(ii) Dr Myers a.s.serts that I met bis critici.sm by two lines of argmnent. I don't think so 

 at all. I merely showed him how he ought scientitically to have iletcrmined whetlier Ins 



• There is strong feeling tUroughout the Tirol and surrouuding dlBtricts against marriage with 

 a Btranger, — often leailing to the niobbing of a bridegroom from nnother locality. 



+ I shall on another occasion have a good deal to say abnut the conolu.sions Dr Myers has published 

 on Egyptiau gkuUs, and ou tliu methoda be haa uaed in drawing thoae couoluaions. 



