A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF THE SCOTTISH SKULL. 



449 



Table LV. 



Measurement. 



Anderson's Series. 



Scottish Series. 



Thickness at inion .... 

 About middle of frontal (mid line) 

 About middle of parietal (mid line) 

 At frontal eminence .... 

 At parietal eminence .... 



9-10 mm. 

 6-59 „ 

 5-93 „ 



5-78 „ 

 5-66 „ 



14 - 25 mm. 

 7-01 „ 

 7-24 „ 

 5-65 „ 

 6-41 „ 



There is considerable divergence in the mean thickness shown by the two series 

 at the site of the external occipital protuberance or inion ; but whether the other 

 measurements may be taken as indicative of a greater mean thickness in the Scottish 

 than in the Irish skull, as the figures given would lead one to believe, would require 

 further investigation. 



Both Turner (47) and Sollas (46) refer to the relatively great thickness of the 

 cranial wall in the Australian skull. 



6. Origin of the West Scottish Skull Type. 



In the course of my investigations into the characters of this Scottish series of 

 crania, I was impressed by the remarkably close resemblance they presented in their 

 general proportions to those of illustrations I had seen depicting crania obtained from 

 long barrows in various parts of the country, generally referred to as "long-barrow 

 crania," and to Professor Bryce's skulls from the chambered cairns of Arran ; 

 especially was this the case in the series of plates in Biometrika, vol. iv, depicting 

 long-barrow crania from the collection of the University of Oxford, described by 

 Schuster. The present series of Scottish skulls also presented an exceedingly close 

 resemblance in their general form to the series of crania described by Macdonnell 

 and known as the Whitechapel English crania, which the latter regards as the typical 

 skull of the Londoner of 200 years ago. 



Macdonnell was convinced that the skulls which resembled his series most 

 closely were the long-barrow skulls. Schuster (62) gives some measurements for 

 the principal dimensions of the series of long-barrow crania in the museum of Oxford 

 University, and I have made use of some of his measurements and placed the corre- 

 sponding values in the Scottish series alongside for comparison. From the table it 

 is quite evident that the present series of male Scottish skulls in their general pro- 

 portions are not far removed from the long- barrow crania, and are undoubtedly of the 

 same type. Their difference from Turner's collection of crania containing specimens 

 from the whole of Scotland — although principally derived from the south, — especially 

 in regard to mean maximum breadth, has been already described at sufficient length. 



