ANTHROPOLOGIC A.L SOCIETY OF Px\RIS 385 



being representatives of the aiitochtlionoiis race, are, on the contrary, descendants 

 of the AlcHKinl, (he last invaders of the conntry. The attention of the Society 

 has been therefoi-e principally fixed on the Fins, with whom we may associate 

 the Esthonians, and on the Basques. 



j\[. Beddoes, (of Clifton,) well known for liis researches respecting- the jjopula- 

 tions of Scotland and Ireland, has connnnnicated to the Society the table of meas- 

 nrements which he has taken of the heads of the Swedes and Finns. The last 

 are distinguished by a decided brachycephalism, and differ from the Scandinavians 

 not less by the conformation of the face than by that of the head. The absence 

 of the Finnish skull constitutes in the museums of Paris a void much to be 

 regretted. Last year, however, three skulls of Esthonians were given by M. 

 Baer to the museum of natural history, and have been the subject of an import- 

 ant communication of M. de Quatrefages. Although separated from the Finns 

 by the Gulf of Finland, the Esthonians speak a dialect of the same language, 

 and, notwithstanding the mixtures the}' may have nndergone, the greater part of 

 them still ])reserve the characters of the Finnish race. Of the three skulls wliich 

 j\I. de Quatrefages has j^resented to the Society, one is purely Mongolic; the sec- 

 ond is so too, though in a less degree ; both are brachycephalous. The third is 

 almost dolichocephalous, but is very similar to the second in the form of the face; 

 like that, it is remarkable for a prognathism limited to the upper jaw. The lower 

 maxillaries, on the contrary, have a vertical direction, and M. de Quatrefages has 

 discovered in those bones all the characters of the famous jaw of Moulin-Quignon. 

 Our eminent colleague is hence disposed to believe that the Esthonians are the 

 remains of a race heretofore disseminated in western Europe, where it has long 

 since disappeared through multiplied and jwedominative crossings, but where, 

 nevertheless, it has left an influence wdiich is still manii'estcd here and there by 

 the phenomena of atavism. The cases of alveolar prognathism which sometimes 

 present themselves among our own people, especially in females, would thus find 

 an explanation. These views, resting thus far upon l)ut two pieces, (for the first 

 Esthonian skull, being toothless and dcj^rived of the lower jaw, cannot serve for 

 the study of prognathism,) have need of further confirmation j but they are not 

 unworthy, even now, of being regarded with high interest. 



As to the Bascpie skulls, tlie discussions to which they have given rise in the 

 society are still pending. Nineteen new skulls, similar in all respects to the 

 former GO, and, like them, nearly all dolichocephalous, have been sent to us by 

 our zealous colleague, 'M. Velasco. But these, again, come from the cemetcny of 

 Zaraus, and do not escape, consecpiently, the exclusion invoked by M. Pruner-bey. 

 Every effort should be used, therefore, to procure Basque skulls from some other 

 scene of production. The consignment made by M. Velasco had the advantage, 

 however, of eliciting a new discussion, wdiich procured us the pleasure of hearing 

 an instructive lecture of M. Pruner-bey on the Basque language. Without dis- 

 avowing the analogies which have been pointed out between that language and 

 the 'J'artar idioms, our colleague shows that these analogies are suiierlicial and 

 of little significance. In his view' the Basque language constitutes a unique fact 

 in the old continent, and has true aflinities only with the languages of America; 

 but he does not think himself autliorized, from the aflinity of the languages, to 

 infer the filiation of the poi)ulations. However this may be, the ideas S('t forth 

 in this memoir arc l)ut little favcn-able t() the hypothesis of those who si rive to 

 reduce to one single race all the i)rimitive, or rather j)re-Aryan, races of 

 Europe. 



This qiu'stion of prehistoric races, thanks to the zeal of the arcluei 'logical 

 anthnjpologists, lias made, within a short time, remarkable progress, l*" ranee, 

 Switzerland, Belgium, the Britisli Isles, Scandinavia, are no longer the only coun- 

 tries subjected to the investigations of our science. "^IMiere is now scarc'ely any 

 country of Eurojjc which is a stranger to researches of this nature. Slo-re than 

 one important prehistoric station has been discovered in Germany and Austria. 

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