SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 429 
has no practical use. All inventions the history of which is known are the 
products of wealth and leisure. 
What is needed in anthropology is a clearer distinction between fact and 
theory. 
Dr. M. A. MacConaitt and Dr. F. L. Ratpus.—The post-natal develop- 
ment of the brain in a Nordic group (4.15). 
The population of Sheffield has been shown to deserve the status of a 
Nordic group (MacConaill, Clegg and Ralphs, Proc. 1st Int. Congr. Anthrop. 
and Ethnol., London, 1934). 
From measurements made upon 2,600 male children from five to twenty 
years of age the growth of the cranial capacity has been estimated over the 
period indicated. It is assumed that the Lee Pearson mean formula for 
cranial capacity in relation to length, breadth and auricular height, 
conjointly, holds good over the period considered. 
During this time the final fifth of adult cranial capacity is attained at a 
rate which steadily increases. The ratio of brain growth to that of other 
parts shows a definite return to the infantile proportion during the period 
of adolescence. It is concluded that the ‘ corporeal concomitant’ (of 
Keith) is supplemented by an increment connected with the onset of sexual 
maturity. 
Wednesday, September 11. 
Mile. Simone Corsirau.—Archeological surprises (10.0). 
Dr. Gorpon Warp.—The Roman colonia in Britain (10.45). 
The study of Roman veteran colonies in Britain has scarcely yet advanced 
beyond the recording of the names of those few towns which are known to 
have had the civil status appropriate to colonies. It is possible to make 
further progress by seeking for the remains of that peculiar rectangular 
road system which characterised the true colony. This road system is 
not to be sought for in the towns but in the open country in the neighbour- 
hood of Roman cities. It demarcated the holdings of veteran soldiers, and 
is still easy to identify near Brancaster in Norfolk and both north and south 
of Lincoln. Gillingham in Kent affords a further example, but only these 
three have as yet been studied at all closely. There are certain road plans 
which resemble those of the colonies but are of different origin, and there are 
certain particulars in which the three colonies studied appear to depart from 
the classical model, for example, the individual small holdings appear to 
have been oblong rectangles and not squares. It is possible to suggest some 
rules for the identification of colonies, but this paper is not intended to be 
more than an introduction to a fascinating study likely to advance our 
knowledge of Roman and later Britain in ways as yet hardly suspected. 
