568 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XVIII. Xo. 401. 



impart the knowledge through the medium of 

 clear and forcible language; and there are 

 indications that both the preparatory schools 

 and the universities are awaking to a realiza- 

 tion of this fact. 



P. C. Warman. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE CEANIOLOGY OF THE 

 PEOPLE OP SCOTLAND.* 



Under this title Professor Sir William 

 Turner, than whom no one is better qualified 

 to deal with this subject, presents the first 

 systematic account of the cranial characters of 

 the people of Scotland. The study is based 

 on 1Y6 carefully gathered skulls (117 males 

 and 59 females) obtained principally in the 

 counties south of the Clyde and Tay (' low- 

 land Scotland ')• 



The memoir is written in the same clear ■ 

 style, eminently fit for instruction, which 

 marks all the works of this author, and the- 

 results of the study are of much interest. 

 These results are briefly summarized as fol- 

 fows: 



"The Scottish cranium is large and capa- 

 cious; the vertex is seldom heeled or roof -like, 

 but has a low rounded arch in the vertical 

 transverse plane at and behind the bregma." 

 The side walls " bulge slightly outwards in 

 the parieto-squamous region, so that the great- 

 est breadth is usually at or near the squamous 

 suture. The occipital squama bulges behind 

 the inion." The glabella and supraorbital 

 ridges, in men, ' are fairly but not strongly 

 pronounced, the forehead only slightly recedes 

 from the vertical plane and the nasion is 

 scarcely depressed.' 



Prom the " analysis of the cephalic indices, 

 it woiild appear that a brachycephalic type of 

 skull prevailed in Fife, in the Lothians, in the 

 northeast counties of Forfar, Kincardine and 

 Banfl^; and it occurred to some extent in 

 Shetland, in Ayr, in the border county of 

 Peebles, and in Stirlingshire." 



" The dolichocephalic type of skull was 

 feebly represented in Fife; it was propor- 

 tionally more numerous in the Lothians; it 



* Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinhurgh, Vol. XL., Part 

 in., No. 24, 1903. 



was represented in Lanark, Ayr, Shetland 

 and the Hebrides. It formed the prevailing 

 tjTie in Wigtonshire, in Caithness, in the 

 skulls from the Highland counties, and in the 

 important series of skulls from Renfrewshire." 

 The vertical diameter — basion-bregma — 

 (mean, in males, 132.4 mm.), was only in two 

 out of 150 of the Scottish crania in which the 

 measurement would be taken in excess of 

 the breadth ; the two measurements were equal 

 in four others, while ' in all the rest, whether 

 cephalic index was high or low, the vertical 

 diameter was less than the breadth.' ' The 

 Scottish skulls are platychamseeephalic' 



Among the 73 male and 42 female crania 

 that were cubed (with shot, according to 

 Turner's method), 'the maximum capacity in 

 the male skulls was 1,855 c.c, the minimum 

 was 1,230 c.c, and the mean was 1,478 c.c.'; 

 ' the maximum in the female was 1,625 c.c, 

 the minimum 1,100 c.c. and the mean 1,322 

 c.c' Apparently the Scottish male skull is 

 ' somewhat in excess of the mean ascribed to 

 the crania of European men.' The female 

 skull, similarly as in other races and people, is 

 about ten per cent, less capacious than the 

 male.' ' In twenty-five male dolichocephalic 

 crania the mean capacity was 1,516 c.c' ; in 

 twenty-one male crania of cephalic index 

 ' from 75 to 77.4, the mean capacity was 1,519 

 c.c' ; in fifteen with cephalic index of ' 77.5 

 to 79.9, the mean capacity was 1,452 c.c' ; and 

 ' in thirteen brachycephalic skulls the mean 

 capacity was 1,469 c.c' The Scottish skulls 

 ' with dolichocephalic proportions had a dis- 

 tinctly greater mean capacity than the brachy- 

 cephalic' 



The highest mean cranial capacity was 

 given in the males, ' by the skulls from Fife, 

 Mid-Lothian, Shetland and Eenfrewshire ' ; 

 while the mean was lowest in the skulls ' from 

 Edinburgh and Leith, West Lothian, the 

 northeastern counties, the highland counties 

 and the dissecting-room.' 



" The face was visually orthog-nathous, some- 

 times mesognathous ; the nose was prominent, 

 long and narrow, leptorhine; the orbits had 

 usually the vertical diameter high in relation 

 to the transverse, mesoseme or megaseme; the 



