

MTV 



NEW SERIES. 



No. LIT.— NOVEMBEE, 1864. 



INQUIRY INTO THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF 

 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN CELT OF GAUL AND 

 BRITAIN. 



BY DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., 



PEOFESSOE OP HISTOKT AND EHGITSH LITEEATUEE, UNIVEESITT COLLEGE, TOKONTO, 



Among the terms of a distinctive etlinical significance, derived from 

 classical authorities, and applicable to living races, few have been 

 employed more loosely and indefinitely than that of Celt. The 

 causes of this arise, in part, from the great antiquity of what appears 

 on many accounts to have a just claim to be ranked as the oldest 

 member of the Aryan family of European nations. The peculiar 

 relations traceable between the various Celtic dialects and any assumed 

 common mother tongue of all the Indo-European languages, appear 

 to indicate that the former separated at an earlier stage than the 

 classical languages. I have assigned reasons in a former paper* for 

 believing that the historic advent of the Gauls, on their invasion of 

 Rome and Central Italy in the fourth century, B. C, so far from 

 indicating their first appearance in Europe, in reality marks the com- 

 mencement of their decline and decay. They were then beginning, 



• On the Intrusion of the Germanic Baces into Europe. Edin. Philosoph. Jour, N. i. 

 January, 1855. 



Vol. IX. z 



