FIFE BARROWS. 47 



The opening of a barrow at Kingsnmir (Fife) in 

 1839, and the presentation of the skulls found in it 

 to one of the meetings of the Cupar society, afforded 

 Goodsir a fine chance of discussing the character of 

 these exhumed relics of the far past. Whilst betoken- 

 ing a familiarity with anthropology that ensured the 

 society's attention, he inferred, from the state of the 

 teeth in the respective jaws, the nature of the food 

 eaten by these early Fife settlers, be they Danes or 

 ancient Caledonians. Various opinions, historical and 

 ethnological, had been expressed by lay as well as 

 medical members of the society regarding the crania 

 before them, but no one hazarded a conjecture as to 

 the liabilities, or fiesh-and-blood conditions of the 

 individual possessors during life. Nothing, however, 

 escaped Goodsir's eye and discrimination. Having 

 examined the pericranial surfaces, he pointed out the 

 existence of morbid lesions dependent on a special virus, 

 which had left so marked an impress on the bones that 

 a thousand years had in no wise effaced or obscured 

 its real character. Having gratified the society by 

 the prcciseness and originality of his views, he now 

 surprised them by showing syphilitic nodes, as mani- 

 fest as any modern instance, on one of the crania. 

 Had the society been aware that in 1497, about 

 four years after the return of Columbus from his first 

 7oyage to Hispaniola, the first Scottish edicts were 

 issued against the new distemper, or "grand gore/' 

 "pockis," or "French infirmitez/' the contents of the 

 Kingsmuir barrow with its Byphilitic member would 



