TO RELATIVE CAPACITY OF RACES. 



217 



and the Brachycephali of the Round Barrows of England.* The 

 results are curious, as showing not only a greater capacity in the 

 ancient British skulls than the average modern German, French, or 

 English head ; but an actual average higher than that of all but five 

 of the most distingiiished men of Europe, whose brain- weights have 

 been recorded. On comparing the ancient skulls with those of 

 modern Europeans, as determined by gauging the capacity of both 

 by the same process, the following are the results presented, according 

 to the authorities named : 



TABLE VII. 



The highest average of any nationality, as determined by Drs. 

 Reid and Peacock from the weighing of 157 brains of male patients, 

 chiefly Scottish Lowlanders, in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, 

 is little more than 50 oz., or 1417 grammes; whereas the estimated 

 average brain- weight in the ancient British skulls is 54 oz. for the 

 DoHchocephali of the Long Barrows, which equals that of Sir James 

 Simpson, and exceeds all but six of the most distinguished men. 

 For the Brachycephali of the Round Barrows it is 53-5 oz., which is 

 in excess of the brain-weights of Agassiz, Chalmers, Whewell, and 

 other distinguished men, and exactly accords with that of Daniel 

 Webster and Lord Chancellor Campbell. Tn so far, moreover, as 

 this illustrates the cerebral capacity of ancient races, it is in each 

 case an average obtained by gauging eighteen skulls, and not the 

 cranial capacity of one or two exceptionally large ones. Dr. Thur- 

 nam does indeed suggest that the Barrows may have been the sepul- 

 chres of chiefs ; nor is this unlikely ; but the superior vigour and 

 mental endowment which this implies fails to account for a cerebral 

 capacity surpassing all but the most distinguished men of science and 

 letters in modern Europe. Rather may we conclude from this, as 



"Mem. Anthropol. See., Lend.-," Vol. I., p. 465, 



