172 TRANS ACTIOXS OF THE 



cranial cavity. The water is poured into a measuring glass of 

 2,000 c. c. capacity, and lycopodium is scattered on the water to 

 define the true surface. The putty is taken from the skull ; the 

 latter is cleansed and placed in a dry, warm apartment until by slow 

 evaporation it is reduced to its former weight and consequently to 

 its former capacity. Then it is measured a second time to verify 

 the results of the former measurement. 



Hitherto anthropologists have chiefly employed solid particles, 

 such as shot or seeds, in the cubatu'-e of skulls. Water had been 

 tried by former experimenters without success, and abandoned — the 

 objections to its use being considered insuperable. The lecturer, 

 however, considered that by his mi^thod he had overcome the chief 

 difficulties. Although the method is new and still susceptible of 

 improvement, it is thought that the results — an average of one cubic 

 centimetre difference between the first and second measurements — 

 have not been excelled. 



One of the bronze skulls of Professor J. Ranke, of Munich, was 

 exhibited, and the claims of the inventor, as published in " Cor- 

 respondenz-Blatt der Deutschen Gesellschaft flir Anthropologic 

 Ethnologic und Urgeschichte," September, 1884, were quoted. 

 The lecturer had found one difficulty in using the artificial 

 skull which Prof. Rauke had not suggested. The cavity varied 

 greatly in capacity with changes of temperature. For a perfect 

 conformity of measurements not only was it necessary that the 

 water used should be certain specified heat, but the bronze skull, 

 the various vessels used, and the atmosphere of the apartment in 

 which the experiments were made should be of a corresponding 

 temperature. At 4° centigrade the lecturer obtained for the bronze 

 skull, estimating both by weight and measure, a capacity of 1,220 c. c, 

 while at 14° centigrade he obtained 1,240 c. c. In no case did he 

 get a result as high as that engraved on the skull, viz: 1,255.6 c. c. 

 The skull was presented by Prof. Rauke to the Army Medical 

 Museum. 



A paper followed from Dr. Baker uj^on " The Principles of 

 Interpretation of Brain, Mass, and Form." This paper was 

 illustrated by numerous charts. 



