744 PROFESSOR SIR W. TURNER ON 



breadth index below 75, mesaticephali, index from 75 to 80, and brachycephali, index 80 

 and upwards, has been employed in this memoir. It is obvious that those mesati- 

 cephalie skulls which have the length-breadth index below 77*5 approach nearer to the 

 dolichocephali, whilst those with this index above 77'5 approximate to the brachy- 

 cephali. Thus a skull with the index at or near 76 or 77 is in its form essentially 

 dolichocephalic; whilst one with an index at or near 78 or 79 is essentially brachy- 

 cephalic, though not falling numerically into this category. 



To assist one in determining the value of these classificatory characters as expressing 

 racial distinctions, one should strive to obtain a sufficient number of skulls of a given 

 race, and determine, both by inspection of their form and by actual measurement, how 

 far they fall exclusively either into the brachycephalic or the dolichocephalic group, or 

 present an admixture of both groups, or possess the form and proportion, termed mesati- 

 cephalic, i.e., intermediate to the two extremes. One ought not, however, to attach, 

 as is sometimes done, too exclusive an importance in the determination of race char- 

 acters to the differences expressed by the terms dolichocephalic and brachycephalic ; as 

 if those races were necessarily allied to each other, which on the one hand had in common 

 dolichocephalic skulls, or, on the other, heads brachycephalic in form and proportions.* 

 Eetzius himself emphasised also the necessity of the study of the relative projection of 

 the upper jaw, and employed the terms orthognathic and prognathic in his classification 

 of races in accordance with their skull and head-forms. Since his time the relation 

 between the length and breadth of the nose, the breadth and height of the orbit, the 

 breadth and length of the palato-alveolar arch, the breadth and height of the face, the 

 breadth and height of the box of the cranium, as well as its cubic capacity, have all 

 attracted attention. The value of cranial characters as a basis for the classification of 

 races depends therefore upon a comparison not only of the relative length and breadth 

 of the skull or head, but of several other characters. When, with but a slight range of 

 variation, the majority of these characters correspond in a particular tribe or people, 

 they may then properly be considered as the cranial and head characters of the 

 race, and be of value for purposes of classification. 



It is not easy at the present time to find a race so pure that the possibility of an 

 intermixture with another race may not at some previous period in the history of the 

 race or the locality have taken place. In using this term ' intermixture ' one should 

 understand that it may cover one or other of two conditions. Either it may be 

 produced by the cohabitatiou of parents of different races, whose offspring would there- 

 fore be a half or mixed breed. Or by the residence side by side either, in the same 



* The question of the signification of brachycephaly and dolichocephaly has been discussed in a recent memoir by 

 Dr A. B. Meyer of Dresden, "On the Distribution of the Negritos in the Philippine Islands and elsewhere," BO 

 has arrived at the conclusion that they are not necessarily to be looked upon as constant factors in the determination of 

 racial features. He regards the Negritos and Papuans to be of one race, notwithstanding the differences in the form of 

 the skull and in the stature ; so that in his view considerable variability may exist in the physical characters of the 

 same race. 



