PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



HERTFORDSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



ORDi:>fAiiT Meeting, Hth November, 1893, at Watford. 



Arthur Stradling, Esq., M.E.C.S., F.Z.S., President, in the 

 Chair. 



Mr. Harold Kent, Mr. "W. H. ISTorris, Mr. John L. Pank, Mr. 

 r. "W". Eeeder, and Miss Swindon were elected Members of the 

 Society. 



Mr. John William Durall, The Grange, "Ware; Miss Lake, 

 "Wcllfords, Bricket Road, St. Albans; and Dr. "W. Duncan Scott, 

 M.A. (Oxon.), Glendearg, Watford, were proposed for membership. 



The following lecture was delivered : — 



" The Bronze Age." By Sir John Evans, K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., 

 Sc.D., Treas. U.S., Y.P.S.A., etc. {Transactions, Vol. VIII, p. 1.) 



The President referred to the recent discovery of pre-historic 

 human skulls which had been trephined, and he enquired whether 

 they belonged to the Bronze Age, and if so, whether the tropliining 

 had been done with any small bronze implement known to Sir John. 



Dr. Brett enquired whether the word "brass" in the Bible 

 would not be more correctly translated "bronze," as he had heard 

 stated at the recent meeting of the British Association. 



Sir JoHX Evans replied that he thought the trephined skulls 

 referred to by the President belonged, as a rule, to the close of the 

 Stone Age, and that the orifices in the skulls were probably made 

 by neat flint implements. Tbe system of taking out portions of 

 the skull to relieve the inconvenience of headache was still 

 practised in Dalmatia, and with considerable effect. With regard 

 to Dr. Brett's question, as brass was a mixture of copper and 

 zinc, and zinc was a metal known only at a comparatively late 

 period, the word translated "brass" in the Bible ought certainly 

 to have been translated " bronze." 



Bronze implements and diagrams were exhibited by Sir John 

 Evans in illustration of the lecture. 



VOL. VIII. — PART IV. 



