TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 855 



impossible to explain on any tlieory wbicli would ascribe them to Celtic tribes 

 generally. (2) There is no mention in early Irish documents of an artificial monnd 

 as forming part of a Celtic fortress. (3) At the time of the coming of the Nor- 

 mans the Irish bad few or no castles, and there la no account of the siege or assault 

 of any Irish castle. Indeed it is not contended by the advocates of this hypo- 

 thesis that motes were in use by the Irish when the Normans came, and the only 

 current rival to the hypothesis of their Norman origin is one that would ascribe 

 their erection to very early, and even prehistoric, times. The unscientific nature 

 of the arguments put forward on behalf of 'the prehistoric theory' is easily 

 demonstrable. 



Thus in 1169 the Romansandtheearly Saxons, Angles, and Jiites are excluded. 

 The hypothesis of a Scandinarinn origin of Irish motes, thougli once widely held, 

 is now discredited. Motes have not been observed in the countries from which 

 the Northmen came, and are non-existent or rare in many parts of Ireland which 

 appear to have been specially occupied and dominated by them, e.g., the district 

 near Armagh, the co. Clare, and West Munster. 



As regards the remaining hypothesis, that motes were erected by tlie Normans 

 at the clo.se of the twelfth century and beginning of tlie thirteenth, the following 

 are the principal facts and inferences which, in the writer's opinion, establish it : — 



(1 ) The Normans are known to have adopted this type of fortress in Nor- 

 mandy in the eleventh century, and the large majority of the castles they built in 

 England towards the close of that century have been shown to include a mote. 



(2) When a century later the Normans came to Ireland the mote-fortress 

 suited the conditions of their warfare. 



(.3) There is contemporary documentary evidence that the Normans did erpct 

 certain motes in Ireland. 



(4) Upwards of 80 per cent, of the probable sites of the castles known to have 

 been erected by the Normans in Ireland prior to the year 1216 include a mote. 



(5) The distribution of the motes in Ireland, so far as it has been ascertained, 

 is completely explicable on the hypothesis that they were raised by the Normans, 

 and seems to be inexplicable on any other hypothesis. Of the motes of Ireland, 

 as far as known — 228 in number, 74 are within the Anglo-Norman lordship of 

 Leinster, 63 within the lordship of Meath, and 40 within the lordship of Ulster. 

 In lands retained by the Crown there are 20 motes. In parts of the modern 

 counties of Tipperary, Limerick, and Kerry, occupied by Normans prior to 1215, 

 there are 24 motes. While in all Irish Connaught there are only six earthworirs 

 which can be classified as motes, and in all Irish Ulster there is only one ; and 

 these seven outlying motes can with probability be connected with early Norman 

 settlers. 



(6) The vast majority of these motes have been shown to be situated at early 

 manorial centres. 



(7) In many cases the remains, or at least foundations, of stone towers and 

 other defences exist, or can be shown to have formerly existed,, on the summit of 

 motes, or in the attached base-courts, and these seem to have been the work of 

 the Normans or of their Anglo-Irish successors, and to have taken the place 

 of the original wooden defences. 



Certain classes of artificial mounds must be distinguished from motes, viz., 

 (a) sepulchral mounds, (b) ceremonial mounds. 



9. On certain Changes in the Lateral Wall of the Craniuin due to Muscular 

 Development. By Professor J. Symington, M.D,, F.R.S. 



The following are the results of a series of observations upon the relation of 

 the temporal muscle to the skull and brain from birth until adult life. It was 

 found that the muscle was small at birth compared with the brain-cas?, and con- 

 sequently the temporal ridgo was low at this period of life, only just reaching on 

 to the parietal bone. After birth the muscle grows more rapidly than the lateral 



