R. Crewdson Benington 
133 
superpose the transverse vertical sections of the Royal Engineers and 17th century 
English heads do not indicate any substantial difference between the English head 
of to-day, and our plague pit crania, which we have been told are not typical 
" English." * 
If now we superpose the tissue Fig. XXIX, 17th century English on Fig. 
XXXII living English (on solid paper), so that the median lines coincide and 
No. 6 horizontals are placed in agreement, we find in the frontal and occipital 
regions 5 mm. of thickness ; nor, allowing for the hair, is the thickness anywhere 
excessive till we reach the temporal regions, where we find about 8 - 5 mm. I think 
that probably some of this excess is due to the difficulty of giving the lead tape 
a slightly concave form. The remainder is probably accounted for by the temporal 
muscle. The cranial contours drawn with the Klaatsch craniograph always show 
this concavity at the horizontal No. 3 on the horizontal contour; it is rare to 
find any but the slightest traces of it on contours of the living head. 
Lastly, let tissue Fig. XXVII of the 17th century English skull be superposed 
on Fig. XXX (text) of the living English head. In this case the Ny lines must 
be superposed and not the line NI of the living head with the line Ny of the 
skull f. The best position is, I think, that in which the foot of No. 5 vertical of Fig. 
XXVII coincides with the point of intersection of No. 5 vertical and the Ny line 
of Fig. XXX. This gives 4'5 mm. flesh thickness at the nasion and at the gamma. 
There is possibly some excess of thickness (8 mm.) a little forward of the bregma, 
but this is the very point where the lead tape leaves the flesh of the forehead and 
rises above the hair. Of course it may be argued, that the two nasions ought not 
to be placed on the same horizontal, but that the cranial nasion should be placed 
on the normal to the living head contour at its nasion, the two JS T y lines being 
then made parallel. If this be done, the parallelism is certainly improved and 
the two heads seem to be of much the same height with possibly, but not quite 
demonstrably, a slight metopic development. In order to appreciate the degree of 
resemblance the reader should superpose Fig. I, Thurtell, the murderer's sagittal 
contour, in tissue first on Fig. XX VII, the sagittal contour of the 17th century 
English and then on Fig. XXX, the sagittal contour of the living English head. 
Be will find any fitting impossible, the murderer's cranial contour would contain 
the average living head contour inside itself. It differs about as much as can 
be conceived both in shape and size from the average English head. 
We may conclude that in the class from which the Royal Engineers are drawn 
there is no marked change in the shape of the English head from that of the 17th 
century crania discussed by Macdonell and contoured by Benington. 
* If 135 p 9 mm. and not 125 9 mm. were the true reading of the auricular height, we must add 10 mm. 
to the contour of Fig. XXXI below the line R. A. to L. A. It is impossible then to fit Fig. XXVIII 
in tissue to Fig. XXXI, nor indeed is it possible to fit any transverse cranial contour to such a living 
figure, without assuming 15 to 20 mm. flesh. 
t There is a difficulty here in Dr Benington's notes. He states the mean value of Ny, but has 
apparently plotted his ordinates to the nasion-inion line. 
