136 THE HUMAN SKULL 



and race, and not with pathological skulls, to which 

 class the microcephalic crania belong. 



As I have previously said, the indices which 

 have been invented for measuring and estimating 

 different points in connection with the skull are 

 legion, and when one reads papers like those of 

 Schwalbe's on the Neanderthal or Trinil skulls 

 one finds it at first very difficult to see the wood 

 for the trees. Then, when one has got the focus and 

 sees what is the outcome of this mass of measure- 

 ments and figures, and how small, how highly 

 disputable, and, therefore, how comparatively 

 valueless it is, one is tempted to exclaim of indicial 

 craniology : " All that I know is nothing can be 

 known." 



That the present state of craniology is largely 

 one of pure chaos is my firm belief, and lest this 

 remark be taken as a mere ipse dixit I will quote a 

 very recent instance in proof of my statement. 

 Professor Thompson, of Oxford, has just* published 

 with a colleague a most elaborate work, containing 

 measurements of 1,561 Egyptian skulls from the 

 Thebaid and extending in period from the Pre- 

 Dynastic races, through many of the Dynasties 

 down to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. It 

 seemed desirable to separate off those skulls having 

 a negroid character from those unaffected in this 

 way, and the Professor lays down certain indices 

 by which this may be done, and proceeds to separ- 

 ate his crania into two groups negroid and non- 

 negroid by the help of these indices. Before his 

 book had been given to the public a month a 



* It will be remembered that this article appeared in 1905. 



