24 
He proceeded to discuss certain points respecting the measurement of 
the living head. Measurements from the prepared skull are of course 
vastly more valuable than ihose from the head, by reason chiefly of the 
absence of integuments and the visibility of the sutures ; but skulls from 
races dwelling in remote regions are difficult to procure, and in civilized 
countries like our own, the respect felt for the dead body hinders the 
attainment of skulls fairly representing the average national type, those in 
our public and private collections having mostly belonged to convicts or 
paupers. We are therefore driven to the inferior but easily obtained 
material derivable from the living population. 
Dr. Bush's instrument, and his process for obtaining with it radial 
measures from the meatus auditorius taken as a fixed point, were shewn 
to involve certain practical difficulties when applied to the head — The 
author employed only index callipers and a measuring tape. He always 
registered from several measurements of length, partly in order to render 
his own results comparable with those of other observers, partly because 
it was possible in this way to obtain some idea of the convexity of the 
forehead and the hindhead. He also took the breadth at several points, 
choosing those which are most certainly recognizable, so that one head 
might be fairly compared with another. Such points are, for length, the 
occipital tuberosity and the glabella, which latter he took to be the eleva- 
tion between the superciliary ridges ; and for breadth that of the greatest 
width, (the position of which relatively to the meatus appeared to be of 
value as a race-distinction) the greatest expanse of the zygoma ; the point 
of least width about the junction of the frontal and malar bones, and a 
point above the root of the zygoma and close to the anterior termination 
of the helix : this last he believed to be hitherto his own peculiar property, 
but it was a very convenient substitute for the meatus, the insertion of 
callipers or other instruments into which was not generally relished by the 
person operated on. He attempted to acquire some idea of the vertical 
development of the skull by means of two curvilinear measures, one from 
the nasal root to the occipital tuberosity, the other from the meatus to the 
other across the summit of the head. The circumference he took at 
several points, corresponding with those from which he obtained measures 
of length. 
He concluded by exhibiting a remarkable publication by Professor 
Fitzinger, of Vienna, containing drawings of the so-called Avar Skulls 
found near Baden, in Austria. 
The Chairman, in inviting discussion, said that the difficulties attend- 
ing the subject were very great. He did not think that the shape of the 
skull by any means indicated the capacity of the brain case, and that 
skulls of diverse shapes might contain the same amount of brain. 
