of certain Ancient British Skull Forms. ov 
in excess of the greatest parietal breadth, and is no less 
strikingly distinguished from the prevailing modern head, 
whether of Celtic or Saxon areas, by its shortness, than the 
other is by its length, when viewed either in profile or verti- 
cally. The Anglo-Saxon type of skull appears to be inter- 
mediate between those two forms, with a more symmetrical 
oval, such as is of common occurrence in modern English 
heads. 
If cranial conformation has any ethnical significance, it 
appears to me inconceivable that the two extreme forms 
above referred to can both pertain to the same race; and 
the circumstances under which the most characteristic 
examples of the opposite types have been found, confirm 
me in the belief which I advocated when the evidence was 
much less conclusive, that the older dolichocephalic or 
kumbecephalic skull illustrates the physical characteristics 
of a race which preceded the advent of the Celtz in Britain, 
and gradually disappeared before their aggressions. As, 
however, the opposite opinion is maintained by so high an 
authority as Dr J. Barnard Davis, the comparison of the 
following measurements, illustrative of the three types of 
head, will best exhibit the amount of deviation in opposite 
directions from the intermediate form. The measurements 
are taken from those furnished in the ‘‘ Crania Britannica,” 
and include the longitudinal diameter, frontal, parietal, and 
occipital breadth, parietal height,and horizontal circumference. 
No. 1, like the majority of the same class, is derived from 
a megalithic chambered barrow, and has been selected by 
Dr Davis as a characteristic example of the class to which 
it belongs ;* though, according to him, that is one of 
aberrant deviations from the typical British form. No. 2, 
obtained from a barrow at Codford, in Wiltshire, has also 
been selected by Dr Davis as one of three typical British 
crania. It is of the same type as the Juniper Green skull, 
and its strongly marked characteristics are thus defined. by 
him: “ Its most interesting peculiarities are its small size, 
and its decidedly brachycephalic conformation. This latter 
character, which commonly appertains to the ancient British 
cranium, and even to that form which we regard as _ typical, 
* Proceedings of the Acad. Nat. Sciences, Philadelphia, 1857, p. 42. 
NEW SERIES.—VOL. XVIIJ. No, I.—JuLY 1868. H 
