By John Beddoe, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. 17 



The proportion of breadth to length averages 71 or 72, and the 

 limits of variation in this respect are not wide ; an indication of a 

 tolerably homogeneous race. The height is moderate, and generally 

 either about equal or reciprocal to the breadth, the narrower skulls 

 being often the higher. 



When we regard them in the vertical or in the lateral aspect, 

 we find among them several of the types which Sergi discovers 

 among the long-headed races of the Mediterranean. The long 

 oval is most frequent : and a long irregular ellipse is also common ; 

 but the pentagonal and the hexagonal or coffin-shape are much 

 less so. The parallelepiped occurs, and is of course recognizable 

 both vertically and laterally : a cross between this and the ellipse 

 is, I think, very characteristic : the acmonoid or anvil-shaped type 

 I have already mentioned as occurring. A square forehead, with 

 distinct frontal eminences, is a common feature, and is clearly 

 differentiated from the dome-shaped forehead which is so general 

 a feature in the ancient and modern Anglo-Saxon. This is, I think, 

 a point of considerable importance.^ 



The beginning of the bronze period was, we believe, coincident 

 with the arrival in Britain of a new race, which probably brought 

 in also the Gadhelic variety of the Keltic language. Their circular 

 barrows abound on our Wiltshire downs ; but as cremation seems 

 to have been the rule during the greater part of the bronze period, 

 we have no superfluity of evidence as to their physical type. Only 

 twelve skulls from round barrows in this part of England had 

 their measurements recorded in the Crania Britannica, even in- 

 cluding ionr from Dorset. But these twelve correspond most 

 satisfactorily in their proportions with the whole series (upwards 

 of one hundred), which have been obtained from various parts of 

 Britain. Their mean cranial index was 80 : their height about 

 equal on the average to that found in the neolithic race, though 

 by comparison with the shortened length it appears greater. The 

 form of the head, in the vertical aspect, was usually a broad oval 

 inclining to be heart-shaped, or pentagonal, the greatest diameter, 



' See Winterbourne Monkton skull from cist. 

 VOL. XXXIV. — NO. cm. C 



