788 REPORT— 1891. 



The next classification is that by the colour of the eyes, as black, brown, hazel, 

 grey, and blue. This subject also has attracted much attention of late, and, within 

 certain limits, the results have proved very valuable. 



The most favourite classification, however, has always been that according to 

 the skulls. The skull, as the shell of the brain, has by many students been sup- 

 posed to betray something of the spiritual essence of man ; and who can doubt 

 that the general features of the skull, if taken in large averages, do correspond to 

 the general features of human character ? V^'e have only to look round to see men 

 with heads like a cannon-ball and others with heads like a hawk. This distinction 

 has formed the foundation for a more scientific classification into brachi/cejiJialic, 

 dulicltocejihalic, and mesocephalic skulls. The proportion of 80 : 100 between the 

 transverse and longitudinal diameters gives us the ordinary or mesocephalic type, 

 the proportion of 75 : 100 the dolichocephalic, the proportion of 85 : 100 the 

 brachycephalic type. The extremes are 70 : 100 and 90 : 100. 



If we examine any large collection of skulls, we have not much difficulty in 

 arranging them under these three classes ; but if, after we have done this, we look at 

 the nationality of each skull, we find the most hopeless confusion. Pruner Bey, as 

 Peschel tells us in his ' Volkerkunde,' has observed brachycephalic and dolichocephalic 

 skulls in children born of the same mother ; and if we consider how many women 

 have been carried away into captivity by Mongolians in their inroads into China, 

 India, and Germany, we cannot feel surprised if we find some longheads among 

 the roundheads of those Central Asiatic hordes. 



Only we must not adopt the easy expedient of certain anthropologists who, 

 when they find dolichocephalic and brachycephalic skulls in the same tomb, at once 

 jump to the conclusion that they must have belonged to two different races. 

 When, for instance, two dolichocephalic and three brachycephalic skulls were dis- 

 covered in the same tomb at Alexanderpol, we were told at once that this proved 

 nothing as to the simultaneous occurrence of different skulls in the same family ; 

 nay, that it proved the very contrary of what it might seem to prove. It was 

 clear, we were assured, that the two dolichocephalic skulls belonged to Aryan chiefs 

 and the three brachycephalic skulls to their non-Aryan slaves, who were killed 

 and buried with their masters, according to a custom well known to Herodotus. 

 This sounds very learned, but is it really quite straightforward ? 



Besides the general division of skulls into dolichocephalic, brachycephalic, and 

 mesocephalic, other divisions have been undertaken, according to the height of the 

 skull, and, again, according to the maxillary and the facial angles. This latter 

 division gives us orthognathic, jnognathic, and mesognnthic skulls. 



Lastly, according to the peculiar character of the hair, we may distinguish two 

 great divisions, the people with woolly hair ( Ulotrkhes) and people with smooth 

 hair {Lissot riches). The former are subdivided into Lophocomi, people with tufts 

 of hair, and Eriocomi, or people with fleecy hair. The latter are divided into 

 Etithycomi, straight-haired, and Euplocami,^ wavy-haired. It has been shown 

 that these peculiarities of the hair depend on the peculiar form of the hair-tubes, 

 which, in cross-sections, are found to be either round or elongated in dilierent 

 ways. 



Now all these classifications, to which several more might be added, those 

 according to the orbits of the eyes, the outlines of the nose, the width of the pelvis, 

 are by themselves extremely useful. But few of them only, if any, run strictly 

 parallel. It has been said that all dolichocephalic races are prognathic, and have 

 woolly hair. I doubt whether this is true without exception ; but, even if it were, 

 it would not allow us to draw any genealogical conclusions from it, because there 

 are certainly many dolichocephalic people who are not woolly-haired, as, for 

 instance, the Eskimos.- 



Now let us consider whether there can be any organic connection between the 

 shape of the skull, the facial angle, the conformation of the hair, or the colour of 

 the skin on one side, and what we call the great families of language on the other. 



' Not Euplo-omic, wavy-haired, r s TriLton gives it. 

 "^ Brinton, Baocs <■/ People, p. 249. 



