H.— ANTHROPOLOG V. 



153 



At one time I looked upon this change as the result of the immigration 

 of people of Alpine and Slavic descent from the Continent in the last 

 century, but I think so no longer, since I have examined a series of modern, 

 short-headed skulls from the Continent and find that these, like our own 

 Beaker Folk, always have an average proportional breadth of more than 

 •330, while our modern English people show no sign of increasing their 

 proportional breadth and greatly exceed the Continental proportional 

 height. 



I can see no signs of heredity or harking back to any known ancestry 

 in the change which is coming over the English head, but only signs of 

 reaction to environment. Is it not reasonable to think that, as the 

 improved conditions of life are gradually shared by all classes, this change 

 in the head shape will gradually become more general until the Englishman 

 of the future is a man with a very differently proportioned head from that 

 of any of his ancestors ? Please do not think that I wish to decry the 

 old cranial index ; it has helped us much in the past, it will help us much 

 in the future. All that I would say is that unless we take the proportional 

 height into account we shall miss a great deal that we ought to know. 



To sum up this, which I fear is a too lengthy communication, I am 

 left with the belief that the Englishman of the future is, if present condi- 

 tions persist, making for an average height of 5 ft. 9 in., and the women 

 for one of 5 ft. 6 in. or 5 ft. 7 in. 



That our people have reached, and are stationary at, a stage in which 

 some 66 per cent, have light eyes and some 34 per cent. dark. 



That there are no signs whatever that the hair colour has darkened 

 during the last sixty years, though there are signs, which perhaps need 

 discounting, that the hair is lighter than it was sixty years ago. 



That the head shape is showing unmistakable signs of an increase of 

 its proportional height, with a decrease of its proportional length, and 

 that this increase of proportional height is greater than has been found 

 in any of the stocks from which the modern Englishman is derived. It 

 therefore cannot be looked upon as a harking back to any ancestral form, 

 but must be regarded as an evolutionary process, in harmony with the 



