oval cranium than the true Swedes. In the skull of a Turannic
Swede (No. 121) the posterior region of the calvaria is broader, and
does not slope away so much. In general configuration this cranium
approaches the brachy-cephalic class of R etzitts.
A Danish skull figured by N ilsson,180 after E schricht, of Copen
hagen, resembles the Lapponic much more than the Norwegian oi
Swedish forms described above.
The cranial types of Great Britain —the “ islands set in the sea’'
— next claim our attention.
The ethnology of the British Isles appears to be very closely connected
with that of Scandinavia. According to Prof. N ilsson, the
ancient inhabitants of Britain are identical with those of Norway
and Sweden.181 Reference to the views put forth by different ethnographers
and archeologues reveals to us a remarkable degree of
uncertainty respecting the cranial forms and general physical characters
of the primitive Britons.
“ It seems strange,” says Dr. P r i c h a r d , 11 tliat such, a subject as the physical character
of the Celtic race should have been made a theme of controversy. Yet this has happened,
0 and the dispute has turned, not only on the question, what characteristic traits belonged to
the ancient Celtse, but, what are those of their descendants, the "W elsh and the Scottish
Gael ?” 182 Again, he says— “ The skulls found in old burial-places in Britain, which I have
been enabled to examine, differ materially from the Grecian model. The amplitude of the
anterior parts of the cranium is very much less, giving a comparatively small space for the
anterior lobes of the brain. In this particular, the ancient inhabitants of Britain appear
to have differed very considerably from the present. The latter, either as. the result of many
ages of greater intellectual cultivation, or from some other cause, have, as I am persuaded,
much more capacious brain-cases than their forefathers.” 183 In another place, he asks
“ Was there anything peculiar in the conformation of the head in the British and Gaulish
races ? I do not remember that any peculiarity of features has been observed by Roman
writers in either Gauls or Britons. There are probably in existence sufficient means for
deciding this inquiry, in the skulls found in old British cairns, or places of sepulture. I
have seen about half-a-dozen skulls, found in different parts of England, in situations which
rendered it highly probable that they belonged to ancient Britons.. All these partook of one
striking characteristic, viz., a remarkable narrowness of the forehead, compared with the
occiput, 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. It is to be hoped that such
specimens of the craniology of our ancestors will not be suffered to fall into decay.” 184
The hope here expressed, I may say, en passant, has at length met
with an able response, in the Crania Britannica of Messrs. D avis
180 Skandinaviska Nordens Urinv&nare, ett- forsok i comparativa Ethnographien af S. Nilsson,
Phil. Dr., &c. Christianstad, 1888. I. Haftel, Plate D, Fig. 10.
181 See his Letter to Dr. Davis, quoted in Crania Britannica, p. 17.
182 Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, 3d edition, vol. III. London, 1841,
p. 189.
183 Ibid, 3d edit., vol. I., p. 305. 184 It)id, III., 199.
and T h u r n am , who have spiritedly undertaken to “ rescue and perpetuate
the faithful lineaments of a sufficient number of the skulls of
the ancient races of Britain to preserve authentic data for the
future.”
Mr. W il d e , a distinguished antiquary, calls the primitive Irish— those who, in the remotest
times, built the pyramidal sepulchres with stone passages — “ globular-headed.” The
skulls found in the “ Cromlechs,” or sepulchral mounds of a later date, he assures us are
“ <*iefly characterized by their extreme length from before backwards, or what is technically
termed their antero-posterior diameter, and the flatness of their sides; and in this, and in
most other respects, they correspond with the second form of head discovered in the'Danish
sepulchres.” They also “ present the same marked characters in their facial aspect, and
the projecting occiput and prominent frontal sinuses, as the Danish” skulls. “ The nose
in common with all the truly Irish heads 1 have examined, presents the most marked peculiarities,
and evidently must have been very prominent, or what is usually termed aquiline.
With this we have evidence of the teeth slightly projecting, and the chin square, well markedj
and also prominent; so that, on the whole, this race must have possessed peculiarly well-
marked features, and an intelligent physiognomy. The forehead is low, but not retreating.
The, molar teeth are remarkably ground down upon their crowns, and the attachments of
the temporal muscles are exceedingly well marked. . . . . Now, we find similar conditions
of head still existing among the modern inhabitants of this country, particularly beyond the
Shannon, towards the west, where the dark or Fir-Bolg race may still be traced, as distinct
from the more globular-headed, light-eyed, fair-haired Celtic people, who lie to the northeast
of that river.” In the “ Kistaeven,” a still later form of the ancient funereal receptacles,
“ the skull is much better proportioned, higher, more globular, and, in every respect,
approaching more to the highest forms of the Indo-European variety of the Caucasian
race.” 185
From these interesting researches of Mr. W il d e , it appears quite
evident that Ireland has, at different and distant periods, been peopled
by at least two, if not three, distinct races, of which the first was
characterized by a short, and the second by an elongated form of
skull; thus corresponding remarkably, in physical character and
order of succession, to the early inhabitants of Scandinavia.
Prof. D a n ie l W il so n, the learned general editor of the Canadian
Journal, has recently demonstrated the existence in Scotland of two
distinct primitive races, prior to the appearance of the true Celtic.
He thus refers to the crania of these ancient people:
“ Fortunately, a few skulls from Scottish tumuli and cists are preserved in the Museums
of the Scottish Antiquaries and of the Edinburgh Phrenological Society. A comparison
of these with the specimens of crania drawn by Dr. Thurnam from examples found in an
ancient tumular cemetery at Lamel Hill, near York, believed to be of the Anglo-Saxon
period, abundantly proves an essential difference of races.186 The latter, though belonging
to the superior or dolicho-kephalic type, are small, very poorly developed, low and narrow
in the forehead, and pyramidal in form. A striking feature of one type of crania from the
Scottish barrows is a square compact form.................
• 185 Lecture on the Ethnology of the Ancient Irish. By W. R. Wilde, 1844.
186 Natural History of Man, p. 193.