116 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



often far from being the ones dowered with the greatest 

 intellectual power. It was found, for instance, that cli- 

 mate was a determining factor that the inhabitants of 

 northern regions have larger heads than those who live 

 farther south. Thus the Lapps, in proportion to their 

 stature, have the largest heads in Europe. After these 

 come in order the Scandinavians, the Germans, the French, 

 the Italians, the Arabs. 



It was found also that the least cranial capacity of the 

 ancient Egyptians coincides with the most brilliant period 

 of their civilization that of the eighteenth dynasty. Meas- 

 urements of skulls unearthed at Pompeii showed that the 

 heads of the Komans who lived two thousand years ago 

 were larger than the heads of the Romans of to-day. 

 Similarly, the skulls of the lake-dwellers of Switzerland 

 were larger than those of the Swiss people of the present 

 time, while the average circumference of the skulls meas- 

 ured in the catacombs of Paris is more than an inch greater 

 than that of the Parisians who have died during the last 

 half century. The circumference of the skulls of a large 

 number of mound-builders, excavated some years ago near 

 Carrollton, Illinois, exceeded that of the average head of 

 white men in New York of our day by nearly three inches. 

 This shows that the culture of the white race during long 

 centuries has not developed its cranial capacity to equal 

 that of the uncultured Indians who flourished in the Mis- 

 sissippi valley untold generations ago. 



The skulls of Quaternary men were likewise very volu- 

 minous, although they belonged to a race whose mental 

 manifestations were infantile in the extreme. Even the 

 celebrated Engis skull, one of the most ancient in existence, 

 has been described by the late Professor Huxley as well 

 formed and considerably larger than the average of the 

 European skulls of to-day, not only in the width and 

 height of the forehead, but also in the cubic capacity of 

 the whole. Furthermore, the eminent craniologist, Broca, 



