34 Professor Arthur Keith [Feb. 20, 



part of the forehead is often retracted or drawn inwards. But it is 

 also true that in sensitive, less robust, delicately moulded human 

 heads of the short type, the eye-brow ridges remain undeveloped. 

 I am, therefore, of opinion that the lofty dome given to Shakespeare's 

 head is due, not to acrocephaly, or any pathological condition, but 

 represents the well-sprung vault and delicately-moulded forehead 

 seen in the more highly evolved of modernized round-heads. 



I have already mentioned that my attention was drawn to the 

 portraits and bust of Shakespeare by the visit of Mr. Oatway to the 

 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. It was a similar happy 

 chance which sent certain information concerning Robert Burns my 

 way. Less than a year ago, I received a letter from Mr. Barrington 

 Nash, well known to students of Raeburn and of Burns, informing me 

 that he had in his possession two valuable documents relating to both 

 his heroes. One of them was a life-size portrait of Burns by Raeburn ; 

 the other a cast of the poet's skull. I was not aware of the existence 

 of either of them, but a visit to Mr. Nash's studio in Chelsea made 

 me realize their great and permanent value, especially their utility 

 for my present purposes. 



That the cranial cast, which has been generously presented to the 

 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons by Mr. Nash, was made 

 from the poet's skull there can be no doubt. Its history is well 

 known. Burns died in 1796 at the age of 37. In 1834, thirty-eight 

 years after the poet's death, his widow, Jean Amour, died. At that 

 time Dr. George Combe was stimulating the study of phrenology in 

 Scotland, and, when the grave was opened in 1834, Dr. Blacklock 

 and Mr. McDiarmid, Editor of the " Dumfries Courier," took the 

 opportunity of making a plaster cast of the poet's skull. Dr. George 

 Combe published very accurate drawings of the skull-cast with an 

 account of his examination, couched in the phrenological language of 

 the day. The cast, as may be seen from tlie drawings which accom- 

 pany this paper, is not complete ; it includes the whole of the part 

 which contains the brain, but, in front, stops short at the lower 

 borders of the orbits. 



The outstanding features of the skull of Robert Burns becomes 

 at once apparent when we set it within the profile of Shakespeare's 

 bust — both being drawn to the same scale and orientated on the same 

 plane. We have seen that Shakespeare's head has been represented 

 in large dimensions, but, as regards length, the Scottish skull is the 

 longer. Its length — 206 millimetres — is remarkable. In 117 skulls 

 of Scotsmen, drawn from all parts of the country, Sir William Turner 

 found eight which measured 200 millimetres or more in length, but 

 the longest was 2 millimetres shorter than the poet's skull. In 

 life his head must have measured 216 millimetres in length — a 

 head of altogether exceptional length. Examination of Fig. 8 also 

 shows that the heads of Shakespeare and Burns represent contrasted 

 types — one is an example of the short-headed, the other the long. 



