TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 839 



The wool letters, though very nice, handy, and without gloss, are very apt to 



fade. ,., • • 1- • 



In order to get a more uniform light, and also to more readily imitate the signal- 

 lights, patterns were formed of twin-coloured glass, cut into small squares and 

 arranged into mosaic figures, between two plain glasses so as to form a slide which 

 is put into a lantern. These slides are not subject to the variability of daylight, 

 and will never fade. The little squares are hardly destructible. 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7. 

 The following Papers were read : — 



1. On Euman Bones discovered hy General Fitt-Rivers at Woodcuts, 

 Botherley, ^c. By Dr. Beddoe, F.B.S. 



The paper contained a comparison of the Romano-British skulls found at 

 Woodcuts and Rotherley, and of the Anglo-Saxon ones at Winklebury, with re- 

 marks on the striking difference in stature between the two former and the latter 

 series. The differences in size (of the skulls) were inconsiderable, and the average 

 cephalic index was about the same in the Romano-Britons and the Saxons, falling 

 just below 75. The elliptic form predominated in the Saxons, the ovoid and 

 coffin-shaped in the Britons. The frontal radius and arc of Busk were larger in 

 the Saxons. In the Britons neolithic forms, pure or mixed, were frequently ob- 

 served, Dental caries was more frequent in the Britons. The author doubted 

 whether the stature of the Britons was quite so dwarfish as had been supposed ; 

 if allowances were made for the soft parts, for the advanced age of some of the 

 individuals, or if they were supposed to have the shortness of limb often found 

 in people of low stature, the male average might even be raised as high as some- 

 where between 5 ft. 4 in. and 5 feet .5 in. (164 centimetres). In any case, how- 

 ever, the stature was very low, whether compared with that of the Winklebury 

 Saxons (over o feet 7), or with the bronze people, or with Davis and Thurnam's 

 long-barrow men. The author inclined to agree with the suggestion of General 

 Pitt-Rivers that the race might have degenerated in stature under the combined 

 influence of oppression, poverty, &c., and of the abstraction, generation after gene- 

 ration, of the taller men for service in the legions. 



2. Human Remains from Wiltshire. 

 By J. G. Garson, M.D., V.P. Anth. Inst. 



In his important work on ' Excavations in Oranborne Chase, near Rushmore ' 

 General Pitt-Rivers has asked the following question regarding the human skeletons 

 he found: 'What race can these people be taken to represent? Are they the 

 survivors of the neolithic population which after being driven westward by suc- 

 cessive races of Celts and others continued to exist in the out-of-the-way parts of 

 this region up to Roman times, for which hypothesis the crouched position of the 

 interments and then- markedly dolichocephalic or hyperdolichocephalic skulls 

 appear to afford some justification, or are they simply the remnants of a larger 

 race of Britons deteriorated by slavery and reduced in stature by the drafting of 

 their largest men into the Roman legions abroad ? In order to throw some light 

 on this important subject, the author has examined several skeletons obtained in 

 various parts of Wiltshire from excavations of barrows containing human remains 

 associated with neolithic implements. Of these neolithic people there seem to 

 have been two varieties ; both of these are characterised by having long narrow 

 skulls, but the skull of the one variety differed from that of the other in that, 

 while one is of regularly oval outline, the other has flattened sides which give it 

 a coffin- or pear-shaped appearance. The skulls examined by the author showed 



