586 
NATURE 
[ April 7, 1870 
headed race, with small features, whilst those from the 
round barrow were a tall, short- or round-headed race, 
with larger and more prominent faces. There was 
nothing new in this statement that the skulls of the an- 
cient Britons of the later or Bronze age were usually of 
rounded form ; the chief novelty was the fact deduced by 
Dr. Thurnam from his explorations in the primeval 
long barrows, that the skulls from that form of tumulus 
are of extreme length, such as now prevails only in far 
distant lands, as for example in India, Africa, and Aus- 
tralia. 
Dr. Thurnam’s general conclusions as to the skull- 
forms from the barrows, were concisely expressed by him 
in the formula— ‘long barrows, long skulls: round 
barrows, round skulls.” This coincidence between the 
form of the barrow and the shape of the skulls which it 
contained, appeared to be so strange to some minds that 
they hesitated to give full weight to the statistics brought 
forward in support of it. The unfavourable reception 
which Dr. Thurnam’s conclusions met with in certain 
quarters, however disagreeable to him at the time, can 
now only be a subject of congratulation, as it no doubt 
served as a spur to further investigation, the results of 
which are most conclusive. In the paper published 
in the Anthropological Memoirs of 1870, Dr. Thurnam 
was enabled to discuss the character of as many as sixty- 
seven skulls from the two classes of long barrows, no fewer 
than twenty-seven of them being from simple barrows, 
although the first described skull from that class of tumulus 
was obtained so recently as 1863. The results of the 
measurements of these sixty-seven skulls, as contrasted 
with those derived from seventy skulls from the round 
barrows, may readily be made evident to those of our 
readers who are least acquainted with the technicalities of 
craniology. Skulls are now usually classed according to the 
form of the brain case, as “long,” “short,” and “ interme- 
diate,” the limits of each class being accurately defined. Of 
these sixty-seven skulls from long barrows, then, it is found 
that eighty-two per cent. are technically long, and eighteen 
per cent. intermediate; not one technically short or round. 
On the other hand, of the seventy round barrow skulls, 
eighty-three per cent. are short, and seventeen per cent. 
intermediate ; not one long. Bearing in mind that the 
archeological evidence has satisfactorily established the 
superior antiquity of the long as compared with the round 
barrows, the conclusions here arrived at, based as they 
are upon a wide induction of instances derived from one 
district and one class of monuments, are a clear gain to 
science, and are not for one moment to be compared with 
such hypotheses as that of a primitive short-headed popu- 
lation, founded by Retzius upon the examination of 
isolated crania from various parts of Europe. 
The question of the relation of the men of the long 
barrows to the existing people is one of great difficulty. 
It might seem natural to infer that the skulls recognised 
by some excellent observers, such as Dr. Beddoe, as 
Keltic skulls, are the modern representatives of the 
ancient long heads. They seem to us, however, to 
differ in many essential particulars, especially in the 
important element of height. Dr. Thurnam appears to 
have been impressed with certain historical evidence 
favourable to the notion of the Iberian origin of the 
long barrow people, and he has accordingly carefully 
studied the large series of Basque skulls in the museum 
of the Anthropological Society of Paris. The results of 
the comparison between the two classes of skulls do not, 
however, seem to go far towards supporting the Iberian 
theory. We are inclined to think that Dr. Thurnam 
should have turned to the north rather than to the south 
of Europe for the representatives of the primitive long- 
headed population of Britain. He readily allows that 
certain skulls obtained from ancient cemeteries (grave- 
rows) in northern Germany closely resemble those of the 
long barrow folk, but he seems to have been deterred 
from following up the clue by the fact that these grave- 
row skulls are of the iron period, and probably of post- 
Roman date. Since the date of Dr. Thurnam’s paper, 
however, skulls of the same long and high form have 
been found in Rheinhessen, in graves assigned by the 
eminent archaeologist Lindenschmidt to a date 500 years 
before Christ. Similar skulls have also been discovered 
in Bohemia with weapons of stone and bronze. 
We have devoted so much space to the archeological 
and craniological portion of Dr. Thurnam’s paper, that 
we are unable to notice in detail the admirable way in 
which the physical facts observed are reviewed in the 
light of historical evidence. It must suffice to say that 
the men of the long barrows are identified with those 
“described by Ceasar under the name of Jnterzores 
Britanni, as forming the aboriginal population,” whilst 
those of the round barrows are inferred to be the Belge, 
who, according to Caesar’s account, passed over to Britain 
from the Continent, in immediately pre-Roman times, for 
the purpose of plunder and making war. 
NOTES 
WE are glad to be able to state that energetic steps are now 
being taken in the matter of the Expedition to view the 
approaching Eclipse of the Sun. We believe that Mr. Lassell, 
the President of the Royal Astronomical Society, will call 
attention to the subject at the meeting of the society to-morrow 
evening. 
Mr. Lockyer, in his third lecture on the Sun, delivered at 
the Royal Institution on Saturday last, showed an interesting 
experiment with a candle, which gives a good general idea of 
the solar phenomena as observed by his new method. As 
round the sun Mr. Lockyer can spectroscopically detect an 
ordinarily invisible hydrogen envelope which is rendered evident 
by bright lines only as contrasted with the nearly continuous 
spectrum given by the white light of the surface of the sun, 
so also there is an ordinarily unnoticed envelope (of sodium 
vapour) round a common candle flame which gives a bright line 
spectrum as contrasted with the continuous spectrum of the 
flame itself. Mr. Lockyer also showed that some of the 
phenomena he has seen when watching a solar storm may be 
reproduced by disturbing a candle flame. 
WE have heard so much recently of the long-delayed determi- 
nation of Cambridge University to apply itself in earnest to the 
cultivation of Natural Science, that the information contained in 
the following paragraph must be a blow to those of its friends 
who hoped to see that it was entering on a new course :—‘“‘ The 
Syndicate appointed to consider the means of raising the neces- 
sary funds for establishing a Professor and Demonstrator of 
Experimental Physics, and for providing buildings and apparatus 
required for {that department of science, and other wants of the 
University, have made a report to the Senate, in which they 
state that they have addressed a communication to the several 
colleges of the University, to inquire whether they would be 
willing, under proper safeguards for the due appropriation of any 
moneys which might be entrusted to the University, to make 
contributions from their corporate funds for the above-mentioned 
objects. The answers of the several colleges, except that of 
King’s, which has not yet been received, have been fully 
considered by the Syndicate. They indicated such a want 
of concurrence in any proposal to raise contributions from 
the corporate funds of colleges, by any kind of direct 
taxation, that the Syndicate felt obliged to abandon the 
notion of obtaining the necessary funds from this source, and 
accordingly to limit the number of objects which they should 
recommend the Senate to accomplish. They confined their 
attention, therefore, to the means of raising sufficient funds 
