vni CRANIOLOGY i 



strongly impressed with the idea that race characteristics are as 

 strongly indicated in the bones of the cranium, including those 

 of the face (hitherto much neglected), as they are in the external 

 features, colour, hair, proportion of limbs, stature, etc. ; but at the 

 same time none of the varieties amount to what, speaking 

 zoologically, I should call "specific.'' A well-known advocate 

 of the " polygenitic '' view of man's origin cites the skull of a 

 New Hebridean in his collection, declaring that such a skull has 

 such strong specific characters as could by no possibility be 

 found in an English graveyard. I perfectly admit the premises, but 

 not the conclusion, illustrating my objection by saying that it 

 would be equally impossible to find a cranium having the char- 

 acters of a bulldog in the burying-ground of a kennel of fox- 

 hounds ! 



The relation of the Tasmanian to the Australian race is a 

 great difficulty at present, involving the question of the import- 

 ance of hair as a race characteristic ; by the hair the Tasmanians 

 are allied to the Melanesians and Papuans, and separated from 

 the Austrahans. These may have been the primitive inhabitants 

 of the whole of Australia, and the Australians (from wherever 

 derived) may have occupied that great continent at a subsequent 

 date, driving out the woolly-haired people, who survive only in 

 the islands, and of whom traces are still said to remain in some 

 parts of Australia. But we have not yet the data to discuss this 

 theory. Among collections of Australian skulls, we find some 

 tending to the Tasmanian t}rpe, but whether these belonged to 

 individuals having curling hair, and other Tasmanian charac- 

 teristics, or even came from the localities where that race might 

 have been supposed to linger, we unfortunately do not know. 



As I hope, whenever opportunities permit, to continue to 

 work at these questions, I shall be much pleased if at any time 

 I can be of use to your Grace in regard to them. 



The Duke of Argyll to Professor Flower 



Argyll Lodge, Kensington, 

 October 2%, 1878. 



Many thanks for your very interesting letter, which will be 

 of great use to me. I see in the paper you sent last week that 



