Mr. Tate on Stature, 8fc., of Northumbrians. 133 



by whom, or at what time, does not appear." I have lately- 

 made some little investigation, but as yet, with no better 

 success than the author of that account had met with. 



On the Stature, Bulk, and Colour of the Eyes and Hair of 

 native Northumbrians. By George Tate, F.G.S., &c. 



Dr. John Beddoe, president of the Anthropological Society, 

 who had been long investigating the physical characters of 

 Man in the British Islands, applied to me to procure informa- 

 tion regarding the height, the weight, and the colour of the 

 eyes and of the hair of the natives of Northumberland. For 

 this purpose, I obtained returns of the Northumberland 

 Militia, and of the Volunteer Corps in the northern part of 

 the county* In Dr. Bed doe's recently published valuable 

 memoir " On the Stature and Bulk of Man in the British 

 Islands " use has been made of this information ; but as the 

 facts gathered are of local interest, and furnish reliable 

 materials for estimating the physical characters of Northum- 

 brians, I have carefully analysed these returns ; and I now 

 lay the results before the Club as a contribution to an im- 

 portant section of Natural History, which has not, hitherto, 

 been treated of in our proceedings. 



The several returns include a total of 996 men — 441 being 

 in the Militia, 428 in the Percy Artillery Volunteers, and 

 127 in the Rifle Volunteers ; but striking off 80 men not be- 

 longing to the county, we have left 916 natives of North- 

 umberland. The generalised results appear in table A, on 

 the following page. 



In this table the militiamen are from the age of 23 to 50 

 years ; but several both younger and older than these ex- 

 tremes are included among the volunteers. As, however, the 

 colour of the eyes and hair does not alter much within the 

 youngest and oldest ages in these returns, the whole is given, 

 as affording fuller materials for forming an opinion of the 

 prevailing complexion of native Northumbrians. 



* I am indebted to Major Holland for information regarding the Percy- 

 Volunteer Artillery Corps ; to Captain Kot>t. Douglas for the Berwick Eifles ; 

 to Sergt. -Major Treble for Belford, Wooler, &c, Eifles ; to Mr Blair for the 

 Alnwick and Morpeth Eifles ; and to Sergeant O'Flynn for the Militia. 



R 



