No 33. — 1886.] THE VEDDAS OF CEYLON. 



485 



In various places I have earlier demonstrated why it is not to 

 be assumed that the Veddas have ever passed through a state 

 of higher civilisation. If in spite of the reasons for such a 

 conception, which to me seem conclusive, it may nevertheless 

 be assumed that, owing to unfavourable outward circum- 

 stances, they have by degrees retrograded physically, and that 

 their present low intellectual condition is the result of this 

 physical deterioration, we should then be forced to represent 

 them as a pathological tribe. The smallness and delicacy of 

 their bones, above all the tiny size of their skulls, and, as a 

 necessary result, the inferior capacity of their brains, might 

 indeed suggest the hypothesis that they are a kind of cretin 

 or microcephyle. Unquestionably the brain of the Vedda 

 must be very small ; direct and definite statements of how 

 small we have not, and computation is very uncertain. 

 Herr L. W. von Bischoff"* has called attention in detail to 

 the inexactness of the proposed method by which the weight 

 of the brain is computed from the capacity of the skull. 

 We can, however, by this method arrive at an approximate 

 estimate, and I subjoin a few such calculations. The first is 

 according to the method of Mr. Barnard Davis, who for the 

 meininges and the vessels deducts 15 per cent, from the 

 figures for the capacity of the skull, and claims the remainder 

 as being the weight of the brain. The second is according 

 to the direction of Herr von Bischoff, who ascertained that the 

 capacity of the dry skulls was with males 11*9, with females 

 about 8*8 per cent. cub. cm. larger than the weight of the 

 brains expressed in grams. The weight of brain, therefore, 

 would be with the Veddas, according to — 



Davis's method. Bischoff 's method. 



Males, 1,13(3 grams ... ... 1,177 grams 



Females, 1,021 grams ... ... 1,105 grams 



These numbers, however inexact they may be, still indi- 

 cate a very striking contrast to the proportions of the brain 



* Theodor L. W. von Bischoff. Das Hirngewicht des Menschen. Mtin- 

 chcn, 18S<), v. 66. 



