March 7, 1901] 



NA TURE 



457 



East along the- valley of the Danube into Europe, a very 

 different race was passing from northern Asia into the 

 Baltic piovinces. These people formed settlements on the 

 islands of Denmark and westward as far as the north of Ire- 

 land. They were the first of the broad-skulled races of the 

 human family who had entered Europe. Their skulls were 

 brachycephalic in form with broad faces and noses, the latter 

 being deeply concave (at the base. Their remains are found 

 in the islands of Denmark, especially that of Moen, also in 

 Yorkshire and county Antrim, in which localities their de- 

 scendants may still be recognised by their physical characters. 

 These people belonged to the stone age of Europe, and by 

 comparing their skulls with those of the Rodmarton or Cro- 

 Magnon crania we see the great difference in form of the pre- 

 historic long and the broad-headed races of men. Until the 

 close of the neolithic epoch there were, therefore, three pure 

 races who formed the sole human inhabitants of Europe, with 

 the exception of those who were the outcome of the inter- 

 marriage of the people of these three races with one another. 



Passing from the neolithic to the succeeding bronze age, we 

 find that Europe, including our islands, was overrun by a small, 

 olive-coloured, broad-skulled people having characteristic Mon- 

 golian features. These were the lake-dwellers of Switzerland 

 and other parts of Europe. They were traders in bronze, and 

 probably, as Prof. G. Mortillet and other authorities hold, they 

 gradually replaced stone, horn and bone with bronze instru- 

 ments and weapons, effecting in this way a great revolution in 

 the social and industrial habits of the pre-existing inhabitants 

 of western Europe. In these far distant times deep mining 

 operations were out of the question. Superficial copper ores 

 were abundant in most parts of Europe and Asia, but alluvial 

 tin was extremely scarce on our continent, and it is still only 

 found in large quantities in south-eastern Asia. Cornwall, the 

 Scilly islands, the south of Ireland, and some few other 

 places also contained superficial ores of tin. It seems probable 

 that the Mongolians inhabiting the highlands of south-eastern 

 Tibet long before the commencement of the bronze age in 

 Europe spread into Burma, the Malay Peninsula and Cochin 

 China, and there acquired the art of mixing copper and tin in 

 such proportions as to form bronze, the weapons and instru- 

 ments which they manufactured of this metal being a ready and 

 profitable source of barter in Europe. Together with the broad 

 skulls and other remains of these people we find in the debris of 

 the lake dwellings numerous ornaments made of jade, nephrite 

 and chloromelanite, minerals found in large quantities in south- 

 eastern Asia but not in Europe ; and, lastly, vases on which 

 are depicted people in oriental costume and instruments used 

 only by the south-eastern Tibetans have been discovered in con- 

 nection with the remains of the lake-dwellers and the round or 

 oval burrows of Europe. These people, as a rule, cremated the 

 bodies of their dead, and numerous cinerary urns containing 

 their remains are found scattered over the Wiltshire and other 

 ranges of hills in the south of England. Some of their skeletons, 

 however, have been discovered in the round barrows which are 

 so numerous in many parts of England, Ireland and throughout 

 Europe and Asia. With these remains bronze instruments have 

 been found, indicating, like the stone implements of palaeolithic 

 man, various stages of excellency in workmanship. One of the 

 finest skulls in our museum was taken from a round barrow at 

 Codford, Wilts. The form of this brachycephalic skull, together 

 with its nasal bones and orbits, are characteristic of the southern 

 Mongolian race, well known to us as the Gurkhas and Burmese 

 of our Indian empire ; a lazy, bright, rollicking, fighting people, 

 intensely superstitious and home-loving — " the Irish of the 

 East " as they have been aptly called. In the course of many 

 centuries the Mongolian people of western Europe have become 

 absorbed into the preexisting Ibero-Aryan population and a 

 cross-breed has resulted, and from this stock the ancient British 

 people of our islands were derived. Their skulls are meso- 

 cephalic (a combination of the long and broad skull) and are amply 

 represented in our museum, the cephalic indices being about 78. 

 Subsequently to the bronze age the ancient Britons were well-nigh 

 exterminated in England by Teutonic races who invaded our 

 country from the north of Europe, the Anglo-Saxons taking the 

 place of the pre-existing ancient British population of England 

 and Scotland. Nevertheless, in some districts of England, 

 such as North Bedfordshire, a number of the descendants of the 

 ancient British stock continue to flourish up to the present day, 

 as also in the greater part of South Wales, much of Cornwall, 

 and the south and west of Ireland, the upper classes in Ireland 



NO. 1636, VOL. 63] 



being clearly derived from the ancient Aryan stock who passed 

 from Gallia into that country during the neolithic period. 



W> possess the measurements of the heads of some 25,000,000 

 of the present inhabitants of Europe and the United States of 

 America. From these measurements we learn that a large pro- 

 portion of the people now dwelling in the countries bordering 

 on the Mediterranean Sea are a short, brunette, long-skulled 

 race, descended, we believe, from those who, from the form of 

 their skulls and other physical characters, occupied that part of 

 Europe and the north of Africa in far distant ages — the Iberian 

 race. Scandinavia and North Germany are inhabited by a tall, 

 fair, long-skulled people, derived from the proto-Aryan races 

 who settled in that part of our continent in the neolithic epoch. 

 A vast triangle, having its base in eastern Russia and its apex 

 on the Atlantic in south-western France, is inhabited by a 

 broad-skulled people derived from Mongoloid or Turanian an- 

 . cestors. We do not for a moment affirm that these races, as 

 such, have remained pure, far from it, but the results of the 

 measurements of the heads of a great number of the existing 

 inhabitants of Europe point to the conclusions above indicated ; 

 and this idea is confirmed by the indices ofthe splendid collection 

 of crania which occupy so large a space in the museum of this 

 college — a collection which was commenced by John Hunter 

 and upon which a great amount of time and labour has been 

 spent in describing and classifying the skulls which it contains ; 

 a work which, in my opinion, should be completed up to the end 

 •of the past century. 



The characteristic physical type of palaeolithic man may be 

 still recognised among the inhabitants of western Europe, 

 although their skulls have grown more capacious, especially in 

 the frontal region. This change in the form of the cranium 

 marks a corresponding advance in the capacity and organisation 

 of the brain, and consequently of the intellectual ability of man i 

 it is, in truth, evidence of his inherent power to overcome the 

 demand made on his mental capacity in order to cope success- 

 fully with his ever-increasing struggle for existence, consequent 

 on the growth in number of his fellow-creatures and the more 

 complicated social conditions of his surroundings. Doubtless 

 the form of skull of a large proportion of the inhabitants of our 

 island indicates a cross-breed formed by the intermarriage of the 

 long and broad-skulled families of man who in distant ages met 

 and intermarried in western Europe, thereby improving the 

 stock of their descendants. Races of men, such as the natives 

 of Australia, who have remained in an unchanged environment 

 and without intermarriage with other people, have made but 

 little progress in their intellectual capacity, the form of their 

 skulls continuing of the same type as those possessed by the 

 palaeolithic inhabitants of Europe. 



The same causes to which we have referred, acting for long 

 periods of time on people of the same race, have led, not only to 

 the hereditary transmission of their physical characters, such as 

 those existing respectively among the northern, central and 

 southern inhabitants of Europe, but have also developed 

 specialised areas of nerve structure in their brains, by means of 

 which they have come to think, feel and reason aKke. In this 

 way we are able to comprehend the source and the meaning of 

 large bodies of men belonging to the same race being frequently 

 moved to take common action on matters affectmg the well- 

 being of their race ; they possess, in fact, like innate sentiments 

 although separated from one another by great distances and 

 living under diverse climates and environment. Their emotions 

 and ideals harmonise because their progenitors existed for many 

 ages under similar external conditions and consequently developed 

 like specialised nerve-centres, which have been transmitted,, 

 together with their physical characters, to their successors and 

 become crystallised in their laws and reflected in their con- 

 ceptions of religion as well as in their social institutions. 



In illustration of our meaning we may refer to those revolting 

 pages of history during which Belgium and the Netherlands 

 passed under the dominion of Spain ; the Iberian dominating 

 for the time being over a thoroughly Teutonic race. Or we 

 may contrast the existing condition of the Iberian population of 

 South America with the Teutonic Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of 

 the United States, or between the latter and the negro popu- 

 lation of America, a subject which is more fully elucidated in 

 my book " On the Origin and Character of the British People." 



We have a chart here which shows the result of the recent 

 general election held in this country ; the question at issue was 

 one in which the whole of the people in Great Britain were 

 deeply interested. It is remarkable what a large proportion of 



