424 



NA TURE 



\_Scpt. 2, i88q 



ing this to the ethnogeny of Wales. Does it not seem prob.iMe 

 that the early short race of long-skulled, mild-featured, .stone- 

 using people may have been the ancestors of the swarthy Silurians 

 of Tacitus ; while the later tall race of round-skulled, rugged- 

 featured, bronze-using men may have represented the broad- 

 headed, Keltic-speaking folk of history ? At any rate, the 

 evidence of craniology does not run counter to this hypothesis. 

 For Dr. Beddoe's observations on head-forms in the west of 

 England have shown that "heads which are ordinarily called 

 hrachycephalic belonged for the most part to individuals with 

 light hair," while the short dark haired people whom he 

 examined were markedly dolichocephalic' At the same time it 

 must be admitted that his observations lend "no support to the 

 view that the Kelti: skull ha; been, or would be, narrowed by 

 an admixture of the Iberian type." It should not, however, be 

 forgjtten that the same observer, in referring to a collection of 

 crania from the Basque country preserved in Paris, says : " The 

 form of M. Broca's Basque crania was very much that of some 

 modern Silurian heads." - 



According to the view advocated by Thurnam we have a right 

 to ant'cipate that the olde-t skulls found in this country would 

 be of dolichocephalous type ; and such I believe to be actually the 

 case. Dr. Barnard Davis, it is true, has stated in the " Crania 

 Britann'ca that the ancient British skull must be referred to the 

 hrachycephalic type ; and such an induction was perfectly legiti- 

 mate so long as the craniologist dealt only with skulls from the 

 round barrows or from similar interaients. But the longbarro'.v 

 skulls examined by Prof. Rolleston,^ and the Cissbury skulls 

 recently studied by the same anatomist,* are decidedly dolicho- 

 cephalic, as also are all the early prehistoric skulls which have 

 been found of late years in France. While referring to cranio- 

 logy in this country, I may perhaps be allowed to remark that 

 the eminent Italian anthropologist, Dr. Paolo Mantegazza, in a 

 suggestive paper which has just appeared in his valuable journal, 

 the Archivio fcr VAiitropologia, has referred to the Englishman's 

 contempt for craniological work — work but little worthy of the 

 practical spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race.^ No doubt it is desir- 

 able to increase the number of our observations, but still the 

 good-humoured remark about despising craniology can hardly 

 be applied to a country which numbers among its living men 

 of science such eminent craniologists as Prof. Busk, Prof. 

 Cleland, Dr. Barnard Davis, and Professors Flower, Huxley, 

 and RoUeston. 



It may naturally be asked whether the researches of archaeo- 

 logists in Wales lend any support to Thurnam's hypothesis. 

 Nothing, I conceive, would be easier than to show that very 

 material support has come from this quarter ; but I have 

 abstained, of set purpose, from introducing into this address any 

 remarks on the prehistoric archaeology of Wales. For I have 

 not forgotten that we are to have the privilege of hearing an 

 evening lecture on "Primaeval Man" by so distinguished an 

 archceologist and naturalist as Prof. Boyd Dawkins. No one has 

 done more in this country to forward Thurnam's views, whether 

 by actual exploration or by writing, than Prof. Boyd Dawkins ; 

 and if I have not referred to his work, especially to his dis- 

 coveries in Denbighshire, it has been simply because I was 

 anxious to avoid trespassing on any subject which he is likely to 

 bring forward. •' 



Setting aside, then, any archaeological evidence derived from 

 the bone-caves, barrows, or other sepulchres in Wales, we may 

 finally look at the outcome of our inquiry into Welsh ethnogeny. 

 If we admit, as it seems to me we are bound to admit, the 

 existence of two distinct ethnical elements in the Welsh popula- 

 tion, one of which is short, dark, and dolichocephalic— call it 

 Silurian, Atlantean, Iberian, Basque, or what you will ; and the 

 other of which is tall, fair, and hrachycephalic, such as some 

 term Cymric and others Ligurian; then it follows that by 



I Mem. Anthrop. Soc. Lond., vol. ii. 1866. p. 350. ^ Ihid.^ p. 356. 



3 "On the People of the Long Barrow Period," Jourit. Anthrop. Inst., 

 vol. v., 1876, p. 120. 



■* Ihid.^ vol. vi. 1877, p. 20: vol. viii. , 1879, p 377. 



5 The whole passage so amusingly refers to the national idiosyncracies of 

 craniologists, that it is well worth reproduction. '* In Francia, Broca. il 

 pontefice massimo dell' ifcrcraniolo^ia moderna, col suo ardore etemamente 

 giovanile, non studia piii i crani, ma i cervelli; in Germania si prendono 

 ancora_ misure sui teschi, ma con ratwnabiie ohscguio, quasi si dovesse 

 aden^piere ad un dovere noioso ; in Inghilterra si continua a sprezzare la 

 craniolcgia. come cosapoco degna dello spirito pratico della raiza anglosas- 

 s:)ne ; e in Italia, paese piu scettico di tutti, perchc piu antico e piCi stanco di 

 tiuti, si continua a misurare, pur sorridendo dell' improba e pur inutile fatica. ' ' 

 — r R'forms Craniologica ;" Archivio, vol. x., j8So, p. 117. 



» For Prof. Boyd Dawkins' contributions to the subject see his interesting 

 works on "Cave- hunting," 1874, and on " Early Man in Britain," 1880. 



the crossing of these two races we miy obtain not only indi- 

 viduals of intermediate character, but occasionally more complex 

 combinations ; for example, an individual may have the short 

 stature and long head of the one race, associated with the 

 lighter hair of the other ; or again, the tall stature of one may 

 be found in association with the melanism and dolichocephalism 

 of the other race. It is therefore no objection to the views, 

 herein expressed if we can point to a living Welshman who 

 happens to be at once tall and dark, or to another who is short 

 and fair. 



At the same time I am by no means disposed to admit that 

 when we have recognised the union of the xanthous and melanic 

 elements in Wales, with a predominance of the latter in the 

 south, we have approached to anything like the exhausting limit 

 of the subject. Still earlier races may have dwelt in the land, 

 and have contributed something to the composition of the Welsh. 

 In fact the anthropologist may say of a Welshman, as a character 

 in "Cymbeline" says of Posthumus when doubtful about his- 

 pedigree — 



"I cannot delve him to the root." 

 It is possible that the roots of the Welsh may reach far down 

 into some hidden primitive stock, older mayhap than the Neo- 

 lithic ancestors of the Silurians ; but of such pristine people we 

 have no direct evidence. So far however as positive investiga- 

 tion has gone, we may safely conclude that the Welsh are the 

 representatives, in large proportion, of a very ancient race or 

 races ; and that they are a composite people who may perhaps- 

 be best defined as Siluro-Cymric. 



Many other questions relating to Welsh ethnology press for 

 consideration — such as the hypothesis that the Kymro was pre- 

 ceded, in parts at least of \Vales, by the Gael ; but such ques- 

 tions must be dismissed from present discussion, for I fear that 

 my remarks have already overrun the limits of a departmental 

 address. Let us hope however that much light may be thrown- 

 upon a variety of questions bearing upon local anthropology in 

 the course of the discussions which will arise in this department 

 during the present session of the Association. 



PAL^ONTOLOGICAL AND EMBRYOLGICAL 



DEVELOPMENT^ 

 CINCE the publication of the "Poissons Fossiles" by Agassiz 

 '"-' and of the " Embryologie des Salmonidees " by Vogt, the 

 similarity, traced by the former between certain stages in the 

 growth of young fishes and the fossil representatives of extinct 

 members of the group, has also been observed in nearly every 

 class of the animal kingdom, and the fact has become a most 

 convenient axiom in the study of palaeontological and embryo- 

 logical development. This parallelism, \\ hich has been on the 

 one side a strong ai"gument in favour of desi.in in the plan of 

 creation, is now, with slight emendations,' doing duty on the 

 other as a newly-discovered article of faith in the new biology. 



But while in a general way we accept the truth of the proposi- 

 tion that there is a remarkable parallelism between the embryonic 

 development of a group and its palaeontological history, yet no 

 one has attempted to demonstrate this, or rather to show how 

 far the parallelism extends. We have up to the present time 

 been satisfied with tracing the general coincidence, or with 

 striking individual cases. 



The resemblance between the pupa stage of some Insects and 

 of adult Crustacea, the earlier existence of the latter, and the 

 subsequent appearance of the former in palaeontological history, 

 furnished one of the lirst and most natural illustrations of this 

 parallelism ; while theoretically the necessary development of the 

 higher tracheate insects from their early branchiate aquatic 

 ancestors seemed to form an additional link in the chain, and 

 point to the Worms, the representatives of the larval condition of 

 Insects, as a still earlier embryonic stage of the Articulates. 



Indeed there is not a single grouj) of the animal kingdom in 

 \\hich embryology has not played a most important part in 

 demonstrating affinities little suspected before. The development 

 of our frogs, our salamanders, has given us the key to much 

 that was unexplained in the history of Reptiles aitd Batrachians. 

 The little that has been done in the embryology of Birds has 

 revolutionised our ideas of a class which at the beginning of the 

 centui7 seemed to be the most naturally circumscribed of all. 

 Embryology and palasontology combined have led to the recog- 

 nition of a a natural classification uniting Birds and Reptiles on 



' Address by Prof. Alexander Agassiz. vice-president. Section B, at the 

 Boston Meeting of the American Association, August, 1S80. 



