250 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1912. 
assigned to the same sex, and the second small] Cretan tibia is distinctly 
more massive, as may be seen from the appended tracings from a photo- 
graph (fig. 8), in which the Cretan tibia appear as Nos. 1, 2) and 3. 
Lest too much stress should be laid upon the characters of the tibia 
only, I may mention that certainly one skull at Agios Nikolaos, and 
several from near Palaikastro, are sufficiently small to be approximate 
in size to these small limb bones. The occurrence of a very’ short 
thigh-bone at Patema has been mentioned alréady. 
It is tempting to proclaim at once the discovery of a pygmy race 
in neolithic Crete; in the case of the Schweizersbild remains the 
temptation was too great for Professor Kollmann to resist. But some 
consideration is necessary, and though pygmy dimensions must be 
conceded to the Cretan remains here considered, I do not believe that 
the facts provide a basis for the conclusion that a distinct race of 
pygmies is thus demonstrated to have existed. At present I do not 
know how to exclude the alternative view, viz., that the pygmy indi- 
viduals are stunted representatives of their congeners. The seriation 
of the tibial lengths is relevant in this respect, and it gives us the 
following list :— 
Taste VIITa.—Tibiew from Palaikastro and its Neighbourhood. 
Maximum length (in mm.). 
355. Palaikastro. 
354. - 
353. 3 
348. Agios Nikolaos. 
343. Palaikastro. 
341. = 
338. 3 
330 
328. Agios Nikolaos. 
327. Palaikastro. (AlsoSchweizersbild.) 
322-5. 5 
322. Agios Nikolaos. 
320. ss » 
318. Palaikastro. 
(299. Schweizersbild.) 
287. Agios Nikolaos. 
(280. Verona.) ” 
The distinct gap between the specimen (from Palaikastro) measuring 
318 mm. and its successor may ultimately prove the genuineness and 
segregation of a pygmy type; but it will be noticed that one of the 
Schweizersbild ‘ pygmies’ is on the upper side of that gap. Taking 
this into consideration, and remembering that the total number of 
records is but nineteen, I hold that local degeneracy of growth cannot 
be excluded as a possible explanation. I should be prepared to find 
the gap (mentioned above as existing between 318 mm. and 299 mm.) 
diminished by future records. Indeed, upon investigation I find that 
Professor Pearson * publishes data which do reduce the gap, for he 
mentions a tibia of 307 mm. as derived from a Romano-Gaulish inter- 
ment, and he adds records of nine female ‘ row-grave’ tibize, with a 
“i Op. cit. 
