200 BRITISH SKULLS.
belonged to ancient Britons. All these partook of one striking
characteristic, viz. a remarkable narrowness of the forehead
compared with the occipu t, giving a very small space for the anterior
lobes of the brain, and allowing room for a large development
of the posterior lobes. There are some modern English
and Welsh heads to be seen of a similar form, but they are not
numerous.* 11 is to be hoped that such specimens of the
craniology of our ancestors will not b e . suffered to fall into
decay ; they are occasionally discovered in places where
British towns formerly existed.
* I have casts from two skulls in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy,
which werefound,:together with the rest of the skeletons to which they belonged; in
a tomb in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. In these, especially in one of theffij there is a
considerable approximation to the form of the Turanian skull; die face has somewhat
of a lozenge form, a pyramidal elevation, with laterally eminent zygomata.