818 REPORT— 1895. 



of the African races who have great orderliness and cleanliness of arrangrements, 

 and are capable of active recuperation after warfare, without any internal elements 

 of instability. Again, some low types are very imperfect, and can exist only by 

 destruction of others, while any severe shock destroys their polity ; the R-overnments 

 which only exist by raids and plunder, such as that of the Zulus, illustrate this. 

 Turning to high types of civilisation we may see them perfect or imperfect. 

 Countries of financial stability, not undero'oing any rapid organic changes, are the 

 more perfect in type; while those deeply in debt and in continual revolution have 

 but imperfect civilisation, of however high a type it may be. With these 

 distinctions before us, — that all civilisation is a question of degree, — -that there are 

 types of all variety, from the highest complexity to the lowest simplicity, and of 

 all degrees of perfection, or stability and completion, in any given level of 

 complexity — with these distinctions some of the vagueness of verbal usage may 

 perhaps be avoided. 



Turning now from words to things, we may perhaps see some ground for 

 further consideration in even one of the best elaborated departments. 



In the much-vexed question of skull measurements, the paucity of clearly 

 defined racial characteristics may make us look more closely as to whether we are 

 working on an analytic or an empirical method. In any physical problem the first 

 consideration is the disentangling of variables, and isolation of each factor for 

 jeparate study. In skulls, however, the main measures are the length, which is 

 compounded of half a dozen elements of growth, and the breadth and height, each 

 the resultant of at least three elements. Two skulls may differ altogether in their 

 proportions and forms, and yet yield identical measures in length, breadth, and 

 height. How can any but empirical results be evolved from such a system of 

 measurement alone ? 



A departure from this mechanical method has appeared in Italy last year by 

 Professor Sergi. He proposes to classify skulls by their forms, — ellipsoid, penta- 

 gonoid, rhomboid, ovoid, &c. This, at least, takes account of the obvious differences 

 which the numerous measurements wholly ignore. And if skulls were crystals, 

 divisible into homogeneous classes, such a system would work ; only, like all 

 organic objects, they vary by infinite gradation. 



What then lies behind this variety of form ? The variety of action in the 

 separate elements of growth. Sergi's ellipsoid type means slight curvatures, with 

 plenty of frontal growth. His pentagonoid means sharper curvatures. His 

 rhomboid means sharp curvatures with .small frontal growth. And so in each 

 class, we have not to deal with a geometrical figure, but with varying curvatures 

 of the centre of each plate of the skull, and varying extent of growth from the 

 centres. 



The organic definition of a skull must depend on the statement of the energy 

 and direction of each of the separate elements out of which it is built. The 

 protuberances or eminences are the first point to notice. They record in their 

 curves the size of the head when it attained rigidity in the centres of growth. 

 Every person bears the fixed outline of parts of his infant skull. Little, if any, 

 modification is made in the sharpness of the curves between infancy and full 

 growth ; perhaps the only change is made in course of the thickening of the skull. 

 Hence the minimum radius of curvature of each plate of the skull is a most radical 

 measurement, as implying early or late final ossification. In higher races 

 finely roundfd skulls with slight curvatures are more often found ; and this agrees 

 with the deferred fixation of the skull pointed out by the greater frequency of 

 visible sutures remaining, both efi^cts being probably due to the need of accommo- 

 dating a more continued growth of the brain. The length of growth of each plate 

 from its centre in diiferent directions regulates the entire form of the skull. The 

 maximum breadth being far back implies that the parietals grow mostly toward 

 the frontal or vice versa. The top being ridged means that the parietals grow 

 conical and not splierically curved, and hence meet at an angle. 



It seems, therefore, that looking at the question as a physical problem, we are 

 far more likely to detect racial peculiarities in the separate data of the period 

 of fixation of the skull, and of the amount of growth in different directions, than 



