PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 285 



general subject of artificial causes as a means of accounting for abnormal cranial 

 forms, but he thus incidentally notices the peculiarity refcn-red to in Scottish and 

 Scandinavian skulls, and traces it to the same probable source of the cradle- 

 board. His remarks are: "Passant dans I'ancien continent, ne tardons-nous 

 pas a rcconnaitre que ce berceau plat et solide y a prodnit des effets analogues. 

 Les anciens habitans de la Scandinavie et de la CaUidonie devaient s'en servir. 

 si Ton en juge par la forme de leurs cranes."* Dr. Gosse also adds : " Ve.sale 

 ( Opera, lib. I, cap. v, § 25) nous apprend que la deformation occipitale s'obser- 

 vait meme chez les Germains de son epoque : * Germani vero compresso ple- 

 rumque occipite et lata capite spectantur, quod pueri in cunis dorso semj>er in- 

 iumbunt, ac manibus fere eitra fasciaruvi usum, cunarmn lateribus utrinque 

 aUiguntur.' De meme qu'en Amei'ique, cette pratique, en Allemagne, devait 

 etre commune aux deux sexes.'" 



More recently Dr. J. Barnard Davis has illustrated the same subject, both in 

 the later decades of the Crania Britannica and in a memoir in the Natural 

 History Review for July, 1862, entitled " Notes on the Distortions which pre- 

 sent themselves in the Crania of the Ancient Britons." 



Whilst the error of an undue estimate of the extent of such deforming and 

 reforming influences must be guarded against, it is obvious that they will hence- 

 forth require to be taken into account in every attempt to determine ethnical 

 classification by means of physical confonnation. Every scheme of the craui- 

 ologist for systematizing ethnical variations of cranial configuration, and every 

 process of induction pursued by the ethnologist from such data, procr^ed on the 

 assumption that such varieties in the form of cranium are constant within cer- 

 tain determinate limits, and originate in like natural causes with the featui'es by 

 which we distinguish one nation from another. By like means the comparative 

 anatomist discriminates between the remains of the Bos primigenius, the Bos 

 longifrons, and other kindred animal remains, frequently found alongside the 

 human skeleton, in the barrow; and by a similar crucial comparison the crani- 

 ologisr, aims at classifying the crania of the ancient Briton, Roman, Saxon, and 

 Scandinavian, apart from any aid derived from the evidence of accompanying 

 works of art. But if it be no longer disputable that the Iniman head is liable 

 to modification from external causes, so that one skull may have been subjected 

 to lateral compression, resulting in the elongation and narrowing of its form, 

 whilf another under the influence of occipital pressure may exhibit a consequent 

 abbreviation in its length, accompanied by parietal expansion, it becomes indis- 

 pensable to determine some data whereby to eliminate this perturbing element 

 before we can ascertain the actual significance of national skull-forms. If, for 

 example, as appears to be the case, the crania from British graves of Roman 

 times reveal a different form from that of the modern Celtic Briton, the cause 

 may be an intermixture of races, like that which is clearly traceable among the 

 mingled descendants of Celtic and Scandinavian blood in the north of Scotland ; 

 but it may also be in part, or wholly, the mere result of a change of national 

 customs following naturally on conquest, civilization, and the abandonment of 

 Paganism for Christianity. 



It is, is this respect, that the artificial causes tending to alter the natural con- 

 formation of the human head invite our special study. They appear at present 

 purely as disturbing elements in the employment of craniological tests of classi- 

 fication. It is far from improbable, however, that when fully understood they 

 may greatly extend our means of classification ; so that when we have traced to 

 such causes certain changes in form, in which modern races are known to differ 

 from their ethnical precursors, we shall be able to turn the present element of 

 disturbance to account, as an additional confirmation of truths established by 

 inductive craniology. Certain it is, however, whatever value may attach to 



* Essai sur les D&formations artificielles du Crdnc," p. 74, Dr. L. A. Gosse, 1855. 



