92 



NA TURE 



[November 22, 1S94 



numbers in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Stafford. Huxley and 

 Wilson have describe I ihe same race from horned cairns in 

 Caithness, and (roin other places of Scotland. I havedesciibed 

 them from Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Middlesex, and from Orkney. 

 There is some doubt of their having been found yet at an 

 early period in Ireland, as Prof. Macalister informs me that he 

 has not recognised them in Ireland, where there are no long 

 barrows. Sir William Wild, on the other hand, recognised 

 Neolithic skulls from Somersetshire as identical with certain 

 ancient Irish skulls. Any skulls from Ireland I have seen, 

 which have shown characters similar to the Neolithic skulls 

 from England, are of later date, but Huxley describes them from 

 ch.imbered touibs, peat mosses, and river deposits of Ireland. 

 I iliink we may conclude, as regards Ireland, that although it 

 is doubtful whether the Neolithic people were there at as early 

 a date as in Britain, ihey were certainly there later. 



The characters of the skeletons are well marked. The skull 

 is large and well formed, the calvaria is long and proportionally 

 narrow, having a cephalic index of about 70. and of oval shape. 

 The superciliary ridges and glabella aie moderately or even 

 feebly developed, the forehead is well formed, narrow, and 

 curves gracefully to the occiput, which is full and rounded. 

 The upper margins of the orbits are thin, and the malar bones 

 are never prominent ; the profile of the face is vertical, and 

 there is no tendency to piognathism ; the chin is prominent, 

 the symphesial angle is from 70° to So° ; the length of the face 

 from the root of the nose is comparatively short, but as a whole 

 the face is oval in form ; the jaws are small and fine, the teeth 

 are of medium size, and generally in a good stale of preservation, 

 not much worn down. The last molar is always the smallest 

 tooth of that seiies. The facial characters are mild, and 

 without exaggerated development in any one direction ; the 

 same may be said of the calvaria generally. The age of the 

 persons to whom they belong averages, according to Thurnam, 

 forty-five years, which would seem to indicate that the duration 

 of life was rather short at that time. 



The stature of the Neolithic people is short. From Dr. 

 Thurnam's measurements of the femora of twenty-five skeletons, 

 i; averages I 674 m. (5ft. bVm.) by Rollet's formula ; but from 

 my own observations of other specimens which have parsed 

 through my hands, I am inclined to consider this as too high an 

 average. In their general characters the bones are slender, 

 often with a well-marked linca aipera on the femur and plalyc- 

 nemic tibia, which would show that the Neolithic people led 

 an active life, probably as hunters. Dr. Thurnam has noted 

 that sometimes two or more of the cervical or dorsal vertebra- 

 have a tendency lo anchylosis, but I cannot say I have ever seen 

 this. 



On the continent of Europe remains of the Neolithic people 

 arc found chiefly in caves, and show much the .'-ame state of 

 culture and physical features as just described, for instance the 

 well-known Cro-.Magnon race ; but the sequence of their 

 existence there is not so well defined as in Britain, where they 

 held apparently undisputed possession of the country for a 

 considcralile period. Indeed, it is only lately that continental 

 anthropologists have admitted their priority to that of people 

 presenting the character of the next race we will have to deal 

 with. 



From the evidence to hand, it seems probable that the 

 Neolithic people occupied the whole of the west of Europe at 

 one time ; and I agree with several observers in considering that 

 they are to be ideniified with the old Iberian race, of which 

 the Bas'jue may be considered a remnant. There is certainly 

 a strong similarity between Basque skulls and those of the 

 Neolithic people of Britain. 



Unlike I'ala;olithic man the Neolithic people have never be- 

 come extinct in Britain, and their descendants exist to the pre 

 sent time. It is true that subsequent invaders drove them, in 

 many instances, to particular pans of the country, as early 

 history and the excavations of General ritt-Kivers and others 

 show ; but skeletons from ancient tombs indicate that they also 

 mixed with their cor.querors. 



The next people 10 appear upon the scene, previous to the 

 dawn of history, aie those who were in possession of the 

 greater pan of Britain at the lime of Ihe Roman invasion. 

 They came into Bmain from France and Belgium at a consider- 

 ably earlier period, and subjugated or displaced the Neolithic 

 race. These are the so-called Cells. Their advent is marked by 

 the inlroduciion of Ihe use of metals into Britain, and Ihey are 

 associated with the Bronze age. From the custom Ihey had 



NO. IjCS, VOL. 5 l] 



of interring their dead, whom they chiefly cremated, in barrows 

 of a circular shape, they are often known as the Round Barrow- 

 people. They show- a marked advance in civilisation beyond 

 that of Neolithic times, as they were agriculturists, and lived 

 by tilling the soil : they manufactured weapons and ornaments 

 of bronze, and richly decorated pottery ; their flint implements 

 also were of better make, as evidenced by their beautiful 

 barbed arrow-heads. To this period belong many of the 

 curious lake dwellings found all over Great Britain and Ireland, 

 Picts houses of Scotland, and bee-hive houses of Ireland. 



Their osleological remains show lh.it the skull «-as large with 

 strongly-developed superciliary ridges and glabella, the brow 

 well formed and broad, the upper occipital region not project- 

 ing, Ihe tuberosity being the most prominent. In general form 

 the brain-case is broader and rounder than in the Neolithic 

 race, the cephalic index centring round Si ; they were, there- 

 fore, a distinctly brachycephalic people. The upper border 

 of the orbit is thick, the malar bones are prominent and large. 

 The jawbones are large, n:aci\y:;nat'ioiii, and likewise the 

 teeth, which are often much ground down ; the profile of the 

 upper jaw is somewhat prominent, which gives a progna- 

 thous look to the skull ; the chin is well formed. The face 

 as a whole is of an angular lozenge form. The ridges for 

 muscular attachments, both on the cranium and face, are well 

 developed, and the expression is very rugged and savage-like. 

 From the skull Thurnam estimated the average age of the per- 

 sons interred in the round barrows was fifty-live years, while 

 that of the long barrows was ten years less. 



The stature of the Round Barrow race averages I '747 metres 

 (5 feet 9 inches), which is more than the mean stature of the 

 population of the British Isles at the present day. The limb 

 bones are large, with strongly-developed ridges and depressions 

 for muscular attachments. 



This race i< everywhere to be found over Great Britain and 

 Ireland, and although conquered by ihe Romans and subsequent 

 invaders, forms a very important element of the population of 

 the country down to the present day. 



[I have to ihank I'rof. Boyd Hawkins for his kind permission 

 to use woodcuts from his work on " Karly Man in Britain," for 

 the purpose of illustrating this publication of my lecture, and 

 to General Pitt-Rivers lor permitting the reproduction of a 

 block from his plate in "Excavations near Rushmore," vol. ii. 

 The lecture, as delivered at the Royal Institution, was illustrated 

 by numerous lantern slides, which were not suitable for 

 reproduction.] 



UNIVERSITY ASD EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — The Statute relating lo Research Degrees has been 

 promulgated, and has given rise to some dissatisfaction among 

 many of those who have hitherto warmly supported the scheme. 

 The supervision of those who wish to qualify for a Research 

 Degree is to be placed, according to th-_- proposed Statute, in the 

 hands of a Delegacy composed of the Vice-Chancellor and 

 Proctors and twelve other member?, to be nominated by the 

 Vice-Chancellor and Proctors, the llebdomadai Council, and 

 the Members of Congregation This amounts to the creation of 

 a new Delegacy similar in constitution and in powers to the ex- 

 isting Delegacy of non-collegiale students, and it is felt that it i.-.a 

 most unsuitable mode of supervising the work of men none cf 

 whom may be less than twenty-one years of age. It was thought 

 that the supervision of the researchers should be vested in the 

 Professorial body, and it is much to be hoped that the proposed 

 Statute will be thrown out in Congregation, for it is nearly 

 certain that no persons qualified for research would submit 

 themselves lo the supervision of such a heterogeneous body as 

 the proposed Delegacy, and the scheme, of which so much is 

 expected, would become a dead letter. 



In a meeting of ihc Junior Scientific Club, held on Friday, 

 November 16, Mr. P. Flford, of St. John's, exhibited a specimen 

 of shale oil, and papers weic read by Mr. F. Dtuce, of Magdalen 

 College, on anticyclones and other types of atmospheric 

 pressure, and by Mr. W. W. Fisher, of Corpus Christi College, 

 on the Oxford water s-jpply. 



Mr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., has been elected an honorary 

 Fellow of Corpus Christi College. 



