LECTURE III. 



89 



This list requires some explanation. Tlie results arrived at 

 by Morton and Aitken Meigs have been obtained, to a great 

 extent at all events, from the same skulls, namely, from Morton's 

 collection of crania, which was purchased by the Academy of 

 Science in Philadelphia, and has since then received but few addi- 

 tions. Some of the differences between the above observers may 

 have arisen from the circumstance that the measures originally 

 given in English cubic inches, were differently reduced to cubic 

 centimeters. These measurements, as well as those of Welcker, 

 were made with small shot, with which the cranium was filled, 

 and shaken until no more could be introduced. 



Broca has observed, that no exact measurement is obtained 

 by this method, the differences arising when the same skull is 

 measured several times, amounting to from twenty to thirty- 

 five cubic centimeters, owing to the fact that, in many skulls, 

 some parts of the internal cavity of the cranium rise above the 

 level of the occipital foramen, through which the shot is intro- 

 duced. Broca, therefore, by means of a long cuneiform in- 

 strument, presses the shot in every direction, until no more 

 can be introduced. His results, though comparable with each 

 other, present therefore somewhat higher numbers. Again, 

 the skulls examined by the American observers were selected 

 specimens, whilst those of Broca were obtained from disturbed 

 churchyards. 



Broca availed himself of the rare opportunity of examining 

 a number of skulls which were found in Paris, on laying the 

 foundation of the new Tribunal de Commerce, in a vault, at a 

 depth of three meters, at a spot which was already covered 

 with houses at the time of Philip Augustus. The crania must 

 therefore, at the latest, date from the twelfth century, many of 

 these possibly from the Carlovingian period. They certainly 

 belonged to individuals of the higher ranks, as they were found 

 in closed vaults ; and they present two distinct types, — long- 

 heads and short-heads, as well as a larger number of medium- 

 heads, which possess the least capacity ; whilst the long-heads 

 occupy, in this respect, the middle position between the me- 

 dium- and the short-heads, the latter occupying the highest 

 position. All these skulls are marked as Parisians of the 

 twelfth centuiy in the table. 



