84 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 155 



THE RACES OF BRITAIN. 



It is the praiseworthy custom of the Welsh 

 national Eisteddfod to offer prizes for essays 

 upon some topic relating to the ancient national 

 life. This has produced excellent results in many 

 directions, especially in the encouragement thus 

 bestowed upon ethnological studies. Among the 

 substantial fruits of such competitions are to be 

 reckoned an able study by Mr. Luke Owen Pike on 

 ' The English and their origin,' and Dr. Thomas 

 Nicholas's valuable treatise upon ' The pedigree of 

 the English people,' which in 1878 had reached its 

 fifth edition. To neither of these learned works, 

 however, was the great prize awarded. It was 

 bestowed upon an essay presented by Dr. Beddoe, 

 the late president of the Anthropological society 

 of London, which has just been published, in 

 an expanded form, in the volume now before 

 us. 



Differing from previous works, like those just 

 alluded to, and Professor Rhys's ' Celtic Britain,' 

 which are principally based upon historical and 

 linguistic investigations, this is made up, to a large 

 extent, of tables, maps, and plates compiled from 

 the author's personal observations on color and 

 stature, conducted on a large scale. 



Dr. Beddoe's system is founded essentially upon 

 the belief that permanence of color of the hair 

 and eyes is most indicative of racial differences. 

 The opposite opinion seems to have prevailed, 

 ever since the days of Galen and of Celsus down to 

 quite a recent date, that the color of the hair de- 

 pends simply upon temperature and latitude. Our 

 author's method separates eyes into three sorts, — 

 light, intermediate or neutral, and dark. This dis- 

 tinction is founded as much upon shade as color. 

 They are further subdivided into five classes, in ac- 

 cordance with the color of the associated hair ; 

 viz., red, fair, brown, dark, and black. Thus is de- 

 rived, as a ready means of comparing the colors of 

 two peoples or localities, the ' index of nigrescence,' 

 by " taking 100 of each, and subtracting the number 

 of the red- and the fair-haired persons from that 

 of the dark-haired, together with twice the black- 

 haired.'' This gives a number which compendi- 

 ously represents this tendency. The black is 

 doubled in order 11 to give its proper value to the 

 greater tendency to melanosity shown thereby ; 

 while brown (chestnut) is regarded as neutral. " 

 This method Dr. Beddoe believes to be preferable 

 to that of Virchow, which notes only the per- 

 eentages of the pun,' blond type (blue eyes and fair 

 hair) and of the pure brunette type (brown eyes and 

 dark hair), and pays but little attention to other 



The races of liritain : a contribution to the nnthropoloyy 

 of western Europe. By John Bkddoe, M.D , F.R.8. 

 BrlHtol, Alton-smith ; London, Triibiter, lHK r >. H°. 



combinations, which are regarded as results of 

 crossing. 



As a striking example of the great value of the 

 color of the hair as a test of race, he instances one 

 of the most distinct anthropological frontiers of 

 Europe, — a real ethnic division along the line that 

 separates the Flemish tongue, which represents 

 a German stock, on the north, and the Walloon, 

 descending from an ancient Belgic race, on the 

 south. The difference in the physiognomy of the 

 two peoples is very marked ; but such tests as head- 

 measurements and stature fail, w T hile that of the 

 color of the hair everywhere holds good. So, too, 

 as proving that the color of the hair does not de- 

 pend upon latitude and temperature, be brings 

 forward the example of the occurrence among the 

 dark-haired Italian race of two centres of com- 

 parative fairness, — one in the north-western part 

 of the valley of the Po, the other in the region lying 

 between Terracina and Naples. 



But Dr. Beddoe had by no means confined his 

 attention to observations upon the hair and the 

 eyes. In the absence of " sufficient osseous ma- 

 terial in the museums for determining the form 

 and size of the skull," he has measured a con- 

 siderable number of living British heads. He 

 gives an amusing account of the way in which he 

 obtained a series of head-measurements in Kerry, 

 without mnning the risk of fatiguing or irritating 

 the subjects. The people there have large heads, 

 but are of low intelligence, with a great deal of 

 cunning and suspicion. The travelling party con- 

 sisted of four, and, " whenever a likely little squad 

 of natives was encountered, the two archeologists 

 got up a dispute about the relative size and shape 

 of their own heads, which I was called in to settle 

 with the calipers. The unsuspecting Irishmen usu- 

 ally entered keenly into the debate, and, before the 

 little drama had been finished, were equally betting 

 on the sizes of their own heads, and begging to 

 have their wagers determined in the same manner.'' 

 So far as concerns the survival of the prehistoric 

 races in Great Britain, Dr. Beddoe accepts the proba- 

 bility of Boyd Dawkins's theory that the paleolithic 

 people were the ancestors, or at least the near rela- 

 tions, of certain still existing Mongoloid races, par- 

 ticularly of the Eskimo. In this opinion, however, 

 he is opposed by the eminent Hunterian lecturer. 

 Professor Flower, who, in his president's address, 

 delivered last January before the Anthropological 

 institute of Great Britain, argued that the Eski- 

 mo are probably of comparatively late origin, on 

 the ground of their being such an intensely 

 specialized race. But our author thinks he has 

 sufficient ground for assuming the existence of 

 ) races of some Mongoloid race in the modern popu- 

 lation of Wales and the west of England. He in- 



