144 ‘ REPORT—1850. 
matic process, when compared with the longitudinal diameter, will be found to afford 
some of the most striking elements of comparison and classification. Another in- 
teresting basis of comparison appears to consist in the relative proportions of the 
‘parietal and vertical diameters. ‘The following laws would seem to be indicated :— 
In the elongated Dolicho-cephalic, or Cymbo-cephalic type, the parietal diameter 
is remarkably small, being frequently exceeded by the vertical diameter. In the 
second, or Brachy-cephalic class, the parietal diameter is the greatest. In the Celtic 
crania they are nearly equal; and in the Medieval or true Dolicho-cephalic crania 
the parittal diameter is again found in excess. 
Not the least interesting of the indications which this course of investigation 
seems to establish in relation to the primitive races of Scotland, are the evidences of 
the existence of primitive British races prior to the Celte ; and also the probability 
of these races having succeeded each other in a different order from the primitive 
colonists of the north of Europe. Meanwhile, however, these data, and the con- 
clusions derived from them, are produced chiefly with a view to induce more extended 
research. A much greater accumulation of evidence is requisite to establish any 
absolute or certain conclusions ; and this can only be obtained by a general interest 
in the inquiry leading to the observation of such where the researches of the archeo- 
logist, or the chance operations of the agriculturist afford the desired means. 
One or two other indications, however, bearing on the same subject, may here be 
adverted to, as well meriting further attention. One characteristic feature in the 
skulls of various tumuli is the state of the teeth. It is rare to find among them any 
symptoms of irregularity or decay. Ina tumular cemetery at North Berwick, how- 
ever, the teeth of the skulls, though sound, were worn in most cases completely flat, 
like those of a ruminating animal. Dr. Thurnam remarks the same to have been 
the case with the teeth in those found in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Lamelhill ; 
and it is also observable in an under-jaw found along with other remains of a human 
skull, an iron hatchet, and several large boars’ tusks, in a deep excavation on the 
south bank of the Castle Hill of Edinburgh. This peculiarity in the teeth of certain 
classes of ancient crania is of very general application. The inferences to be drawn 
from such a comparison are of considerable value, in the indications they afford of 
the domestic habits and social life of a race, the last survivor of which has mouldered 
underneath his green tumulus perchance for centuries before the era of our earliest 
authentic chronicles. As a means of comparison, this characteristic appearance of 
the teeth manifestly furnishes one means of discriminating between an early and a 
still earlier, if not primeval period ; and though not in itself conclusive, it may be 
found of considerable value when taken in connection with the other and still more 
obvious peculiarities of the crania of the earliest barrows. We perceive from it at 
least that a very decided change took place in the common food of the country, from 
the period when the native Briton of the primeval period pursued the chase with the 
flint, lance and arrow, and the spear of deer’s horn, to that comparatively recent 
period when the Saxon marauders began to effect settlements and build houses on 
the scenes where they had ravaged the villages of the older British natives. But 
the social state in the British Isles was a progressive one. Whether by the gradual 
improvement of the aboriginal race, or by the incursion of foreign tribes, who were 
already familiar with the fruits of agricultural labour, the wild pastoral or hunter 
life of the first settlers was exchanged for one more suited to call forth the social 
virtues ; the increase of the population, either by the ingress of new tribes, or by 
the numerical progression of the first settlers, would of itself put an end to the pos- 
sibility of finding subsistence by means of the chase. Thus, it might be from the 
inventive industry which privations force into activity that new wants were first 
discovered, and new tastes were created, and satisfied by the annual harvests of 
golden grain. The ploughshare and the pruning-hook divided attention with the 
sword and the spear, which they could not supplant, and the ingenious agriculturist 
devised his oaken querne, his stone-rubbers, and at length his simple yet effective 
hand-mill, which resisted, during many centuries of change and progress, all attempts 
to supersede it by more complicated machinery. 
There is only one other point to which I would wish to advert, in reference to the 
archzological evidence which we possess referable to the British Allophylian races, 
and to which I venture to hope ethnologists will be induced to devote more attention 
