286^ RACE HEAD-FORMS AND THEIK 



the sex denoted by Dr. Spurzheim." In the other group of thirteen 

 crania, as exhibited on a separate series of sheets, the corresponding 

 column is left blank ; but a comparison of the two groups of measure- 

 ments, and of the total mean proportions of each, adds confirmation to 

 the assumption that a nearly equal number of male and female skulls 

 had been selected, with a view to determine more accurately the typical 

 characteristics common to the race. The means of determining this, 

 as well as other points that may suggest further inquiry, are, in all 

 probability, still accessible to Parisian craniologists. 



Other columns have been ruled, and some of them headed, though 

 they remain otherwise blank. They help to illustrate the minutely 

 exhaustive process aimed at, e. g. " From fronto-nasal suture to glabellar 

 margin of right nostril." "Do. to glabellar margin of left nostril." 

 " From latero-glabellar sinuous margin of right nostril to inial surface 

 of right coronal maxilla." " Do. of left, to inial surface of left." The 

 peripheral, or tape measurements, have also been originally projected 

 on a much minuter scale, judging from the number of columns left 

 blank under the general heading; but those of most importance are 

 recorded. The head-lines of unfilled columns also include the follow- 

 ing : "Apparent age/' "Apparent strength of the individual:" 

 "Form;" "Outline of foramen spinale;" and — specially suggestive 

 of the phrenological impetus to which the whole measurements were 

 originally due, — this heading: "Character, according to Dr. Spur- 

 zheim." 



The loss of Dr. Spurzheim's inductions relative to the mental cha- 

 raeteriftics of the old sleepers in the Parisian Catacombs, as derived 

 from external protuberances of their crania, is not greatly to be deplored. 

 A point of more interest at the present time is happily recorded for us, 

 in so far as measurements supply any clear indication of head-forms. 

 The question of the typical form and proportions of the Celtic cranium 

 has already been minutely discussed in this journal. The "Inquiry 

 into the physical characteristics of the ancient and modern Celt" 

 attracted some notice at the time of its publication ; was quoted in 

 more than one European journal, and reprinted entire in the London 

 Antliroj)ohgical Review. After drawing attention to one frequent 

 source of error traceable to the neglect of this fact that a type, as an 

 ideal abstraction, embodying the characteristics of both sexes, and 

 embracing the mean of many variations, must not be determined from 

 one or two selected specimens: it was there shown that many of the 



