444 REVIEWS CRANIA BRITANNICA. 



Davis plainly sets foi'th their aim, as a further effort in the same 

 direction as " the two first permanent and beautiful superstructures " 

 of the science of comparative cranioscopy, reared by Morton on the 

 earlier foundations of Blumenbach. In all directions the enthusias- 

 tic students of British History are aiming to extend our vision fur- 

 ther and more clearly into the past. Dr. Todd, Algernon Herbert, 

 Grraves, and a host of other zealous Celtic scholars, are restoring to 

 us the most ancient native Literature of the British Isles. Kemble 

 and Thorpe, following in the wake of Sharon Turner, with greater 

 advantages and profounder scholarship, have thrown fresh light on 

 the Anglo-Saxon era ; Palgrave continues those labors which pro- 

 mise to complete the links requisite to unite in complete coherence 

 Norman and Saxon England ; and Latham, Petrie, Wright, Acker- 

 man, Roach Smith, and other Archaeologists and Philologists, extend 

 their researches in various directions, and add new and diverse con- 

 tributions to the same end. It is well, therefore, that such zealous 

 co-adjutors as the authors of the Crania Britannica should be wel- 

 comed, in undertaking to add to all these one more resurrection from 

 the ancient past, and to treat with adequate minuteness and accuracy 

 of detail, another department of the theme which our great English 

 Ethnologist, Pritchard, dealt with in so masterly a style. 



The design aimed at in this new contribution to British Ethnology 

 is, " to apply the study of the minuter diversities in the form of the 

 skull to the discrimination and elucidation of the various ancient 

 races who have dwelt in the British Islands, the forerunners, at least, 

 if not the progenitors, of a people who may be safely assumed to 

 occupy a place in future history, inferior to none who have preceded 

 them. The investigation of the facts connected with these races is 

 involved in obscurity from their remoteness in time ; the want of 

 information to be derived from the scanty notices of ancient writers, 

 whether the consequence of imperfect knowledge, or inaccurate ob- 

 servation, or their, use of ill-understood general terms ; and especially 

 from the fanciful speculations of learned theorists." To supply some 

 of the desiderata thus deplored, an examination of the personal re- 

 mains of the ancient people is accordingly resorted to. Their memo- 

 rials of ancient arts, domestic habits, military skill, and sepulchral 

 rites, have each and all been made to contribute their quota. Now, 

 it is proposed to ascertain the ancient lineaments and physical 

 characteristics of the people themselves, by means of the still enduring 

 osseous remains of those who ,: swayed the rod of empire," while 

 yet the cradle-land of Anglo-Saxoudom was the seat of Celtic i ' 



