242 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE. 



districts. At the --same time, the same heads (of youths in Sitia 

 province) have to ' make ' a greater amount of growth before this is 

 completed. 



V. Cephalic Index. — The mean value of this index in 79 boys is 

 80 9. As in the cases of its contributory factors (head-length and 

 head-breadth), I have prepared a list of data giving the values of this 

 index at different ages : — 



Mean value of the cephalic or breadth-index of the hear! (in Cretans) : 



(a) Boys of an average age of 6 years . 



(b) The whole series (mean age 9'9 years) , 



(c) Boys of an average age of 15 years 



(d) Adults (males : from all parts) 

 (e) ' Adults (males : from all parts) 

 (a') Boys (mean age 11-1) of Sitia province 

 (b ) Adults (males) of Sitia province 



Having regard to the small number of examples in (a) and (c), 

 I think the first conclusion must be that, in general, the numerical 

 value of this index is very constant from childhood onwards in Crete. 

 This is not the case in Aragon, 2 where the index changes after 

 puberty to a considerable degree. This difference may very likely 

 be constant for the contrast of dolichocephalic and braehycephahc 

 heads. If we confine our attention to Crete, another important 

 inference may be drawn from the last table. It is this : that the most 

 eastern Cretans are distinguished by a degree of brachycephaly 

 higher than the average for that island. A marked degree of brachy- 

 cephaly is already present in the young Cretan of Sitia (the Eastern 

 province). 



As regards the significance of this difference, I have already sug- 

 gested 3 that the history of the large number of colonists introduced 

 by the Venetians (during their occupation of Crete) is well worth 

 investigation. The modern peasant of Emilia has a head characterised 

 by brachycephaly in a high degree. But Venetian colonists need not 

 have been, and probably were not, drawn from the immediate sur- 

 roundings of Venice. When we consider the influence exercised by 

 the Republic over Dalmatia and Illyria before the Venetian expansion 

 commenced on the Italian side of the Adriatic, we may justifiably think 

 of those territories as possible sources whence Crete was re-stocked 

 with inhabitants in the later Middle Ages. In fact, we know that in 

 the year 1471 a.d. the province of Sitia was largely depopulated. This 

 is clearly shown by the Venetian Archives translated by the late Dr. 

 Noiret, 4 and Adrovasti is actually mentioned in a list of the abandoned 

 villages. This depopulation was effected by marauding bands of Turks. 



In Dr. Noiret 's invaluable translation I find evidence that the 

 interest of the Venetians was almost entirely in their settlers, who seem 

 to have been of Italian origin. In a list of thirty-seven names of such 

 persons (who had got into trouble through raising loans which they 



1 Hawes, British Assoc. Report, Dublin, 1908. 



2 Cf. Duckworth, op. cit., p. 44. * Cf. British Assoc. Report, 1903. 



4 Cf. Bibl. des Ec. frangaises d'Athbnes et de Rome, fasc. Ixi. (1892), pp. 520, 521, 

 Univ. Lib. 535c, 40, 34. 



