SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OK ABERDEEN. 35 



with prominent chin, no prognathism, nasal aperture relatively broad 

 and orbital height distinctly less than breadth. 



As to the affinities of these short cist builders they are distin- 

 guished from the older Neolithic race in head form very round broad 

 skulls instead of long and narrow having a cranial index of 84 '8 in 

 contrast to an index of 70. 



Again, while the head form agrees with that of the Bronze Age 

 people the stature is much lower 5 feet 3 inches instead of 5 feet 9 

 inches. The typical Bronze Age skull has strongly developed super- 

 ciliary ridges, upper margins of orbits thick, malar bones prominent, 

 face lozenge-shaped and prognathous-looking, ridges for muscles much 

 developed. Turner, in speaking of the characters of the skeletons 

 from seventeen Bronze Age interments in Scotland, states that the 

 skulls have the nasal aperture long and narrow, the supraorbital mar- 

 gins thick and the height of the orbits greater than the width. 



The picture presented by these is quite a contrast to that of the 

 short cist skeletons now described. 



Whatever be the immediate origin of these short cist builders, 

 there seems little doubt but that they were descendants from the short 

 broad-headed Alpine race that occupied Central Europe about the end 

 of the Stone Age. 



ORDINARY MEETING. 

 24TH JANUARY, 1903. 



Professor R. W. REID, M.D., F.R.C.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. 



Mr. C. T. Andrew described a retro-peritoneal hernia found in 

 one of the dissecting-room subjects. The case was illustrated by 

 a lantern slide. 



Mr. C. M. Smith read a paper on " The Antiquity of Man ". 



