802 EEPORT~1903. 



frequently open sutures and the condition of the teeth, it would appear that 

 the dead here huried had seldom reached an age greater than that of fifty. 



In concluding one has no hesitation in stating that Dr. Thurnam's dictum 

 * round barrow, round skull,' is not even approximately accurate so far as the 

 skulls from the round barrows ot Yorkshire are concerned. 



2. Some Observations on the Pads and Papillary Ridges on the Palm 

 of the Hand. By E. J. Evatt. 



During the course of development of the hand eleven well-defined pads or 

 cushions appear on the palm. The disposition and form of the pads when best 

 marked in the foetus correspond very closely with that which obtains in certain 

 lower animals {e.g., the mouse), and the pads in both cases are probably morpho- 

 logically equivalent, and, further, in man's remote ancestors possibly served similar 

 functions. In the adult the pads may be regarded as vestigial. 



It is probable that when the hand began to be used as an organ of prehension 

 rather than of locomotion, the deep layer of the epidermis invaded the corium in a 

 fluted form, and in this way the close and complicated papillas were difi'erentiated. 

 The interlocking of the corium with the epidermis serves probably to strengthen 

 the connection between the two. 



The interlocking ridges or deep flutings are at first comparatively simple in 

 their arrangement, and tend to lie transversely to the long axis of the limb, even 

 on the sites of the original pads where the patterns eventually assume most com- 

 plex forms. Later on, yet long before the ridges appear on the surface, the deep 

 flutings have assumed the patterns characteristic of the adult papillary ridges. 



The papillary patterns appear on the surface at about the eighteenth week, and 

 are formed by the intervening epidermal tissue sinking in between the buttress- 

 like processes of the underlying flutings, and they thus come to be the counter- 

 part of the perfected patterns upon which they are moulded. 



The convexities of the patterns on the pads of the fingers are directed distally, 

 while the convexities of the patterns over the remaining pads take a proximal 

 direction ; that is, in grasping, the convexities are directed in lines of least 

 resistance ; it would, therefore, seem probable that as the hand became an organ 

 of prehension the flutings assumed the forms already described as the result of 

 mechanical forces. 



3. Some Recent Excavations at Hastings, and the Human Remains found. 

 By J. G. Garson, M.D., and W. J. Lewis Abbott. 



In this paper a description is given of the geological formation and position of 

 Hastings in relation to certain excavations recently made for the purpose of 

 constructing a passenger-Uft from the foreshore to the top of the clifi", in the 

 coiirse of which a number of human remains were found. The date at which 

 these were deposited is uncertain, but they appear to include two racial elements, 

 the earlier of which presented characters agreeing with those typical of the 

 Neolithic race, while the other remains were of people of a much later date. 



4. Remarks on a Collection of Skulls from the Malay Peninsula. 

 By Nelson Annandale, B.A. 



These skulls were obtained by Mr. H. C. Robinson and myself in the Patani 

 States, the population of which is Very mixed, consisting partly of so-called 

 Malays and partly of so-called Siamese, the difference between these two peoples 

 being chiefly one of religion. The skulls fall naturally into four groups, one of 

 which, represented by three adult specimens, shows many primitive characters, and 

 }s especially reuiarkable for the great development of the cerebellar part of the 



