260 SIR J, ^y. dawson, c.m.g._, f.e.s., etc., on specimens 



REMARKS 01^ THE PRECEDING PAPER. 



From Professor J. Cleland, M.D., D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S. :— 

 The McGill University is to be congratulated on having sncli an 

 interesting collection of specimens relating to the extinct inhabi- 

 tants of the Canary Islands, as that which Sir William Dawson 

 brings under the notice of the Victoria Institute. To Americans 

 and Canadians there must doubtless be a special charm in endea- 

 vouring to trace affinities of islanders in the Atlantic with races 

 on both sides of the ocean ; and it is interesting to find that the 

 well-known Principal of the College at Toronto is disposed ta 

 consider that the Guanches are related to the Berber tribes, as 

 Pritchard and Latham have held, and have also characters in 

 common with American peoples. 



The skulls brought under notice form a most valuable collection, 

 and it is to be hoped that they will be carefully preserved, and that 

 they may some day be individually described at greater length. I 

 am glad to note that Sir William Dawson gives the length and 

 breadth of each ; for these are of far greater meaning; than the 



' OCT 



so-called cephalic index (the proportion of the breadth to the 

 length taken at 1,000), both because they afford some guide to- 

 total size and because the index is a proportion between two 

 measurements, which have no particular dependence one on the 

 other. Indeed the index owes the undue importance with which 

 it has been invested to the mistaken supposition that the recognised 

 classification of skulls into brachycephali and dolichocephali by 

 Anders Retzius, took into consideration this proportion and nothings 

 else. The skulls treated of in this communication are all of con- 

 siderable absolute length. It may be added that to give a proper 

 idea of the dimensions of a skull or any other body, not only the 

 length and breadth, but the height, should be given, and that in 

 the skull from Gran Canaria photographed, the height appears to- 

 be very decidedly above the average. 



