SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 589 



association of these with small burial mounds or tumuli. Characteristic relics recovered 

 from such tumuli. Development of the hut circle, the turf wall gradually giving place 

 to one of stone, and the oval form changmg to circular. Hut circles with earth houses 

 opening out of them belonging to the Iron Age. Mostly to be met with in Sutherland. 

 Hut circles formed entirely of stone subdivided in the interior and not associated 

 with cairns or tumuli evidently late, and referable to Christian times. 



Afternoon. 

 Sir EicHABD Paget. — Evidence of the Nature and Origin of Human Speech. 



(1) The acoustic nature of speech, illustrated by talking models. 



(2) Phonation conveys emotional state, articulation conveys ideas. The import- 

 ance of cultivating articulation. Darwin's observations on the sympathy of tongue 

 and hand. Mouth pantomime. Lip reading by ear. 



(3) Evidence drawn from various languages — Aryan, Semitic, Polynesian, &c., 

 and American-Indian, of the gestural origin of speech. Synthetic words. Analj'sis 

 of tongue and lip gestures. Tongue track diagrams. Language differences. 

 Symbolism. Dr. J. Rae, 1862. Roots common to unrelated languages. 



(4) Prof. A. R. Wallace on pantomime in modern English. His theory tested. 

 The high survival value of words produced by pantomimic gesture of the organs of 

 articulation. 



Miss B. Blackwood. — The Colour Top as a Means of recording Ski7% 

 Colour. 



A quantitative determination of the skin colour of man can be obtained by using 

 the Milton Bradley Colour Top. This device consists of a basal disc of cardboard, 

 pierced by a central hole which accommodates a wooden spindle held in position by 

 a nut. On this basal disc are placed paper discs coloured black, red, white and 

 yellow, interlocked by means of a slit from centre to circumference, so that the pro- 

 portion of each colour which contributes to the surface can be varied at wUl. When 

 the top is spun the colours blend. By adjusting the proportions of the four discs 

 till the appropriate combination is obtained, the skin colour of any individual can 

 be matched. 



The basal disc is marked off into sectors, each comprising 5 per cent, of the circum- 

 ference. The number of sectors covered by each of the tour coloured discs can thus 

 be recorded, and the result expressed in percentage. This percentage cannot, of course, 

 be considered as representing the actual amount of pigment in the skin, which can 

 only be ascertained by some form of analysis involving its extraction, impracticable 

 in the field. 



Owmg to variations in working conditions, personal acuity in colour vision, and 

 other difficulties inherent in any technique involving colour matching, estimates 

 obtained by different observers cannot be compared unless the personal equation is 

 known. Experiment has shown that the range of this personal variation is approxi- 

 mately 4 per cent. (+2 per cent.). This is much less than can be obtained by any 

 other methods so far available. 



It is suggested that the colour top method possesses the follo\ving advantages : It 

 is capable of more delicate adjustment and of greater accuracy than any other device 

 80 far adopted. Matching is facilitated by the fact that the texture of the spinning 

 surface resembles that of skin much more closely than does the glazed surface of von 

 Luschan's porcelains. It can be used under field conditions, where the employment 

 of any form of spectrophotometer is out of the question ; furthermore, it arouses 

 interest instead of antagonism in the individuals examined. It provides a means of 

 recording the result in numerical form. The data thus obtained lend themselves to 

 statistical treatment, facilitating the study of various aspects of the subject, e.g. 

 age changes, the effect of racial mixture, of climatic conditions such as tropical 

 sunshine, &c. The numerical formula also enables the skin colour of any individual 

 examined to be reproduced at will, for inclusion in museum records. 



For these reasons the colour top method of recording skin colour appears to be 

 the best field technique that has yet been tried, and therefore to be worthy of the 

 attention of physical anthropologists. 



