"416 ETIiNlCAL FORMS AND UNDESIGNED ARTIFICIAL 



ethnic form, it becomes an important point for the craniologist to 

 determine how far certain apparently inherent diversities of form 

 may, after all, be traceable to undesigned artificial causes. 



Every scheme of the craniologist for systematising ethnical varia- 

 tions of cranial configuration, and every process of induction pursued 

 by the ethnologist from such data, proceed on the assumption that 

 such varieties in the national form of cranium are constant within 

 certain determinate limits of variation, and originate in like natural 

 causes with the features by which we distinguish one nation from 

 another. By like means the comparative anatomist discriminates 

 between the remains of the Bos primigenius, the Bos longifrons, and 

 other kindred animal remains, frequently found alongside of the 

 human skeleton, in the barrow : and by a similar crucial comparison 

 it is attempted to classify the crania of the ancient Briton, Eoman, 

 Anglo-Saxon, and Scandinavian, apart from any aid derived from 

 the evidence of accompanying works of art. But if it is no longer 

 disputable that the form of the human head is liable to modification 

 from external causes ; it becomes indispensable to assign some 

 means for eliminating this disturbing element, before we can deter- 

 mine the true significance of national forms of skull. If, for ex- 

 ample, crania from the British graves of Roman times reveal a 

 different form from that of the modern Celtic Briton : the cause 

 may be an intermixture of races, like that which is clearly trace- 

 able among the mingled descendants of Celtic and Scandinavian 

 blood in the north of Scotland ; but it may also be, in part, or wholly, 

 the result of a change of national customs following naturally on con- 

 quest, civilisation, and the abandonment of paganism for Christianity. 

 When Blumenbach divided the whole human race into five classes, 

 distinguished by physical form and colour ; and Retzius found two 

 divisions of cranial conformation, with an equal number of subdivi- 

 sions, suffice for his whole system of crauiology: the science was 

 simple and of easy application. But as it grows under the combined 

 labours of many intelligent observers, it becomes obvious that it is 

 beset by difficulties akin to those of other sciences ; and in its rela- 

 tions to the investigations of the comparative anatomist, it reveals the 

 same complexities which disclose themselves to the naturalist, when 

 turning from the study of the lower animals to man, he finds the 

 natural history of the latter inseparable in many respects from the 

 attributes of his moral and intellectual nature. 



