A Sketch of his Work as a Craniologist. 3 1 



start in measuring the length of the basi-cranial axis and com- 

 paring it with the vaulted portion of the cranium. At certain 

 times, however, craniologists have recognised the fact that the 

 external auditory opening presented certain advantages over the 

 anterior edge of the foramen magnum as a basal point from which 

 to measure the cranial vault, and curiously enough this view was 

 adopted very strongly by the late General Pitt-Rivers, who in the 

 last volume of his celebrated " Excavations in Cranborne Chase " 

 wrote as follows in discussing this question : — 



" There are other considerations which may perhaps operate in 

 ultimately bringing about a change of system. Mr. Busk, F.R.S., 

 was a strong advocate for measuring from the meatus auditorius 

 and contrived an instrument for this purpose, but it was somewhat 

 clumsy in use and was not generally adopted on that account. 

 His method, however, was sound in principle. No comparison 

 between the skull and the living head can be made by any 

 measurements other than those taken from the meatus. Three 

 profils of living heads taken by my instrument are given in Plates 

 290 and 292 and they are recognised as striking likenesses of the 

 originals. This instrument is made of aluminium and the legs 

 are movable so as to be light en-jugh for use with a living head. 

 The profile can be taken much more quickly than with Mr. Busk's 

 instrument. There is also this great objection to the anterior 

 margin of the foramen magnum as a base for measurement that 

 in ancient skulls which have been buried for ages it is one of the 

 first parts of the skull to decay, whereas the meatus auditorius is 

 much more frequently preserved and a larger number of skulls 

 can be measured by this method, a point of great importance 

 when it is considered what a small number of the ancient skulls 

 found in tumuli and other places are sufficiently perfect to be 

 available for measurement." 



I have been assured by an old friend of Grattan that he had a 

 remarkable aptitude for the construction of mechanical instru- 

 ments, and his craniometer affords ample proof of the correctness 

 of this opinion. Grattan endeavoured to base his measurements 

 upon mathematical principles and to avoid as far as possible the 



