459 



The Examination Papers of the London University for the year 

 1844. — By the Council of the University. 



The Transactions of the Linnaean Society of London. Vol. xix. 

 Part 2. 



Proceedings of tlie Linnsean Society of London. Nos. 15, 16, 17, 

 18. — By the Society. 



Astronomical Observations made at the Radcliffe Observatory, Ox- 

 ford, in 1840 and 1841. 2 vols. By Manuel J. Johnson, 

 — By the Radcliffe Trustees. 



Maps of the Irish Ordnance Survey, containing the county of Dub- 

 lin, in 30 sheets. — By the Lord Lieutenant. 



Nouveaux Memoires de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de 

 Moscow. Tome vii. — By the Society. 



Monday, 4th March 1844. 

 Sir T. M. BRISBANE, President, Bart., in the Chair. 

 The following communication was read : — 



On the Human Races in Britain, enumerated by Tacitus. 

 By Dr Hibbert Ware. 



This memoir had been undertaken as preliminary to an ethnologi- 

 cal inquiry which the author had proposed to institute into the abori- 

 gines of the British Islands. It was premised, that, in this endea- 

 vour to seek for ancient races in those which were modern, great 

 caution is required. 



It has been asked, if, at the present day, we can as readily distin- 

 guish an Iberian type from one that is Gaulish or Caledonian, as was 

 done more than seventeen hundred years ago in the time of Tacitus ? 

 It is answered, that, by a conservative principle in our nature, di- 

 rected to the persistency of types, the influences of Time, Climate, 

 and Civilization, are rendered of little avail. And, even in a mix- 

 ture or crossing of races, there is an interposition of preserving laws 

 made in favour of mutually approximating types, such as those of 

 Europe. For instance, when two or more races are mingled together 

 in different proportions, it is expected that the type of the minority 

 will eventually become merged in that of the majority. But whether, 

 in accelerating or postponing such a result, it will be found that, 

 among all animals, nature exercises a sort of discretionary power 

 under three varied circumstances : 1st, When races widely differ 

 from each other ; 2d, When races are in a less degree remote ; and, 



