138 THE HUMAN SKULL 



the Englishman should have as large a negroid 

 element in his constitution as the pre-historic 

 Egyptian, and only half as little pure negroid 

 element as admitted negroes," is to his mind " an 

 epoch-making discovery." I do not think that one 

 could desire a better example of the uncertainty 

 and, therefore, of the uselessness of many indices 

 as racial tests than that which I have just quoted. 

 It was possibly, in part, a feeling of this kind 

 which induced Sergi, a distinguished Italian 

 craniologist, to propose his natural system, which 

 is based on the shapes of the skull, as viewed from 

 the norma verticalis, which shapes he believes 

 to be " persistent alike in geographical distribu- 

 tion and in the order of time, and therefore re- 

 liable elements for classification." Moreover, he 

 claims that the " interior " or skeletal parts are 

 " not affected by the external influences of habitat, 

 climate, or nourishment." Hence it follows that 

 his types are hereditary which all would admit, 

 within limits and unalterable which is a much 

 larger postulate and one with which I cannot now 

 deal. In any case this criticism may be made of 

 Sergi's system. It is not hard for any trained 

 observer to place a skull in its proper class accord- 

 ing to this classification ; to indicate whether it is 

 ellipsoid, pentagonoid, ovoid, beloid or sphenoid, 

 if the skull is fairly well-marked in its shape. But 

 to decide upon those on the borderland between 

 these main shapes, or to go further and allot skulls 

 to the numerous sub-classes laid down by Sergi, 

 is a much more difficult process and one which 

 must necessarily be tainted by that which we 



