324 NOTICE OF A SKULL BROUGHT FROM THE URIMEA, 
a curious example of a term, subsequently employed as one of the 
most comprehensive heads of classification, having its origin from the 
fewest possible premises. Among the captives taken by the Russians 
in one of their frequent inroads on the country lying between Mount 
Caucasus and the Euxine, was a Georgian woman, who was carried 
prisoner to Moscow, and died suddenly there. The body was made 
the subject of anatomical examination by Professor Hiltenbrandt, 
and the skull having been prepared, was subsequently presented to 
Dr. Asch, of St. Petersburg. From him it passed into the hands of 
Blumenbach, and its peculiar symmetry and beauty appear to have 
made a lively impression on his mind. Tkat this was not without 
good reason appears from the following description of the Georgian 
eranium by Dr. Lawrence : 
«The form of this head is of such distinguished elegance, that it 
attracts the attention of all who visit the collection in which it is 
contained. The vertical and frontal regions form a large and smooth 
convexity, which is a little flattened at the temples; the forehead is 
high and broad, and carried forward perpendicularly over the face. 
The cheek-bones are small, descending from the outer side of the 
orbit, and gently turned back. The superciliary ridges run together 
at the root of the nose, and are smoothly continued into the bridge 
of that organ, which forms an elegant and finely turned arch. The 
alyeolar processes are softly rounded, and the chin is full and promi- 
nent. In the whole structure there is nothing rough or harsh, 
nothing disagreeably projecting. Hence it occupies a middle place 
‘between the two opposite extremes, of the Mongolian variety, in 
«which the face is flattened, and expanded laterally ; and the. Ethio- 
pian, in which the forehead is contracted, and the jaws also are narrow 
_and elongated anteriorly.” 
Little could the poor Georgian captive dream of the posthumous 
‘honours and admiration that were to atone to her for her living 
wrongs. She has avenged herself on her European captors, by in- 
troducing uncertainty and confusion into the science for illustrating 
which Blumenbach regarded her symmetrical cranium as a peculiarly 
valuable prize. It was in the Third Decade of his anatomical descrip- 
tions of skulls, published in 1795, that the skull of the fair Georgian 
was introduced, accompanied by a glowing description of its elegance 
and unequalled grace; and a reference to the beauty of the Georgian 
women, which, as his example proved, lives even in their fleshless 
