142 REPORT — 1855. 



publislu'd half-yearly in the island of Samoa, consisting of one sheet filled with chiefly 

 secular matter contributed by missionaries, eucii number containing a chapter on the 

 Ethnology of the Pacific Islands. The missionaries of these islands were supplied 

 with the first edition of our ' Manual,' and some of them at once appreciated its value 

 as a guide to enable them to study the ethnology of the people they are labouring 

 to convert to Christianity. It is now nearly ten years ago since the first article 

 appeared on the Ethnology of these islanders printed on one of the islands. The 

 ordinary work of the mission so fully employs the printing press of the station, that it 

 is not found practicable to print the journal oftener than half-yearly. It was only 

 in April of this year that I became aware of the existence of this periodical through 

 the kindness of the Rev. E. Front, the Home Secretary of the London Missionary 

 Society. I have brouglit this to the notice of the Association through this Section as 

 one gratifying result of the usefulness of our ' Manual.' 



The frequent reference to our little ' Manual ' by travellers and others ought 

 to satisfy us that our labour has not been in vain. If the results of researches sug- 

 gested and directed by that ' Manual ' have not been publislied to the world through 

 this Association, let us not indulge in selfish regrets, but rather rejoice that in any 

 way it has contributed to the advancement of Ethnological science. 



Oh some Water-colour Portraits of Natives of Van Diemens Land. 

 By Richard Cull, Hon. Sec. Ethnol. Society. 

 Mr. Cull exhibited a number of authentic portraits of natives of Van Diemen's 

 Land, and remarked that the value of these portraits was enhanced by the circum- 

 stance that they could not be replaced, for not one of the aborigines was now alive, 

 or, at any rate, not more than one. The chief object of the paper was to show that 

 the aborigines of Van Diemen's Land were not black, as was popularly supposed, but 

 of a brown complexion. 



On the Complexion and Hair of the Ancient Egyptians. 

 By Richard Cull, Hon. Sec. Ethnol. Society. 



On the Eorms of the Crania of the Ancient Romans. 

 By Joseph Barnard Davis, M.R.C.S. Engl, F.S.A. 

 A numerous series of ancient Roman skulls, derived from three different sources in 

 Italy and from Roman cemeteries at Eburacuni, Londiniuni, Lindum and Glevum, has 

 fallen into the hands of the author. As the basis of these observations, he selects the 

 cranium of Theodorianus, a Roman of consequence, who died at Eburacum in his 

 35th year, and whose inscribed stone sarcophagus was discovered many years ago. 

 The venerable antiquary of Roman York, the Rev. Charles Wellbeloved, has referred 

 him to a Roman family of Nomentum, a town of the Sabiui in Italy. His skull is an 

 elegant example of the capacious Roman cranium. It is marked by the squareness 

 of face common to the typical form of the Roman head, the fine prominent nasal 

 bones of aquiline profile, their position being more expressed from the broad nasal 

 processes of the superior maxillae — the expanded and capacious forehead, of somewhat 

 low elevation, terminating below in a prominence of tlie supra-nasal region, which 

 distinguishes it from the regular skull of Grecian type. It may be regarded as 

 belonging to the typical section of ancient Roman crania, although not presenting the 

 typical character in so decided a form as others exhibited. It will come under the 

 division of what may be called platij-cephalic crania, those distinguished by a horizon- 

 tal expansion of the vertical region. The diacritical marks which distinguish the crania 

 of the ancient Britons from those of the ancient Romans may be expressed as follows : 

 after remarking that those of the Romans were decidedly the larger, he adds : — 

 The face of the former was rather shorter, more irregular, deeply marked by mus- 

 cidar impressions, with a frowning supra-nasal and supra-orbital prominence ; short 

 but abruptly eminent nasal bones, rising suddenly out of the depression at the root of 

 the nose ; the forehead narrower, yet rising at about the same angle to nearly an 

 equal elevation. The face of the ancient Roman was slightly longer, fully as wide in 



