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XII. 



EEPOET or THE WOEK DOITE m THE ANTHROPOMETRIC 

 LABORATORY OF TRIIS'ITY COLLEGE, DUBLIjS", EROM 

 1891 TO 1898. By C. R. BROWNE, M.D. 



[Read May 9, 1898.] 



Seven- years have elapsed since the Anthropometric Laboratory of 

 Trinity College was opened. With the sanction and approval of the 

 Provost and Senior Fellows, a portion of the Museum of Comparative 

 Anatomy was, in 1891, set aside for this purpose, and the necessary 

 instruments were obtained by a grant from the Royal Irish Academy. 



The work which it was proposed to carry out was of a two-fold 

 character, viz., peripatetic and local. 



At that time the physical anthropology of Ireland might almost 

 be said to have been an untrodden field. Little or no systematic 

 work had been undertaken in that direction, and yet there was na 

 part of the United Kingdom which promised a richer harvest for the 

 investigator. Anyone who has travelled through the country dis- 

 tricts of Ireland must be familiar with the very different types which 

 are presented by the inhabitants. It therefore occurred to us that 

 we might employ the anthropometric methods for the purpose of giving- 

 assistance to the anthropologist in his endeavours to unravel the tangled 

 skein of the so-called Irish race. 



With this object in view, our Laboratory has been transferred each 

 year to a carefully selected district, and tlie physical characters and 

 habits of the inhabitants have been systematically studied. Tlie Aran 

 Islands, Inishbofin and Inishark, the Mullet, Inishkea and Portacloy, 

 Ballycroy, and lastly Clare Island and Inishturk, have all been visited 

 in this way, and the Academy is familiar with the various reports 

 which have been submitted upon the peoples of these districts. 



The local work which we proposed to undertake in our Laboratory 

 was of a somewhat diiferent character. In all our great centres of edu- 

 cation we have the most intricate and elaborate machinery for testing 

 the mental capacity of a student, and for estimating his standard of 

 knowledge in different branches ; but at the time oui- Laboratory 

 entered upon its career, only in Cambridge and Eton were there any 

 means, so far as we are aware, in this country by which the 



