12 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1912 



like. It is, of course, possible, when we come to later times, 

 that in some parts of a secluded district like the Cotteswolds, 

 or valleys or hill tracts in Wales or Scotland, we may find 

 groups or families of people who retain the type characteristic 

 of Dane, Norseman, or Anglo-Saxon ; and our field workers 

 might take care to observe any cases of the kind which come 

 under their observation. But the rapid movement of our 

 country population into the great towns, and the constant 

 intermingling resultant from marriage, tend to obliterate such 

 distinctions. In short, the anthropologist is at present in 

 search of a definite test which he can safely apply to a mixed 

 people such as that of these islands. 



But the moral of the Ipswich discovery is that at any 

 time, in some obscure locality, important evidence may be 

 found which may help to solve the problem of race origin. 

 Those among our members who are in a position to watch ex- 

 cavations in quarries, sand-pits, and the like, should keep in 

 mind the great importance of the remains of prehistoric man, 

 and use anxious precautions that evidence of the kind is not 

 allowed to perish. 



An example of the valuable results to be gained by such 

 local enquiries is to be found in the paper recently contributed 

 by Mr A. E. W. Paine on " The Great Doward Cave in the 

 Wye Valley." His investigation of the cave was too limited 

 to produce much valuable information, except that it invites 

 attention to a field which may produce useful material. I 

 may, however, call attention to the skull from a long barrow 

 near Bisley which he presented before us.' It had obviously 

 been the subject of the operation known as trepanning or tre- 

 phining, which remained incomplete, the primitive surgeon 

 having succeeded with his imperfect instruments in producing 

 only a superficial, rudely circular incision into the bone. It 

 is important to remark that the cases of skulls having under- 

 gone this operation all seem to belong to the Neolithic period, 

 and this furnishes a test which, so far as it goes, establishes 

 the date of the specimen. One example from a dolmen, at 

 Aiguieres, engaged the attention of Dr Paul Broca, in 1868. ' 

 Here the instrument used was a neolithic flint, or obsidian 



I. Miss A. \V. Buckland, Journal Anthropological Institute, xi. (1882) pp. 7 et seqq. 



