elaborate account of the various races which had settled in different departments, and from whom local peculiarities of stature might have been derived. M. Boudin remarked, that in 10,000 men examined for military service in 1831, 928 were rejected as below the standard, whilst in 1860, the number rejected only amounted to 594. M. Broca observed that other than ethnic causes might induce diminution of stature; he agreed with the principal part of M. Boudin's statistics. M. Pruner-Bey attributed the low stature of the inhabitants of Silesia and the Black Forest to defective nourishment. This interesting discussion is followed by M. de Quatrefages's description of the Abbeville jaw, which has already been given at length in our columns.

A paper by M. Schaaffhausen on the Neanderthal skull, followed by one on the same subject by M. Pruner-Bey, occupy the next place. M. Schaaffhausen denies that this skull approaches nearer that of the ape, or shows in its general characteristics a smaller degree of development, than the skulls belonging to some savage tribes of our own day. He shows Mr. Huxley's assertion, that the posterior portion of the skull is more abnormal than the anterior, to be without foundation, and that all the peculiarities which he points out are equally discernible in the skulls of other inferior races. The cast of the brain shows a great resemblance to that of an Australian presented to the society at the same time, so far as concerns the smallness of its development.

We next find a continuation of M. Bertillon's paper on Anthropological Method, in which he cites various passages from Quatrefages, Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, etc., as examples of what he calls the syllogistic or scholastic system, as opposed to the scientific. His definition of this system, the tendency of which he denounces as scientifically vicious, is that it consists in foreseeing, and consequently interpreting, the observation of facts from the point of view of a sort of fixed idea, the fascination of which greatly prejudices our logic, and influences the healthy interpretation of the small number of facts possessed by Anthropology, which do not authorise us to arrive at any general conclusion. Ultimate conclusions would appear to be the enemy against which M. Bertillon considers it his duty to keep himself and his brethren ever on the watch. His notion of the mission of a scientific body is, "to collect facts, to arrange them in series, to group them, to draw from them prudently immediate (prochaines) conclusions, and to throw aside every other desire but that of discovering truth." This is certainly very good advice, especially to a society which is commencing a new subject of study, and which is,

therefore, more likely to attach undue importance to discoveries, which wider investigation in the same field may show to have no very general signification. M. Bertillon gives a somewhat happy illustration from the case of the President (at that time M. Quatrefages), and Secretary, M. Broca, of the French Society, who he declares possess an equal knowledge of Anthropological facts with equal powers for their application, and yet they have arrived at exactly opposite results by inductive reasoning from those facts. He then expounds his system of classification, which consists in arranging all measurements of the same species in order and size, and publishing the entire series which results from this arrangement. He gives several examples of the practical application of this system, as in the case of measurements of recruits, &c. The last portion of this very able and elegantly written paper is devoted to a consideration of the fallacies, which the author considers have arisen from giving an undue importance to the influences of media. A description by M. Pruner-Bey, of a brachycephalic skull, belonging to the stone age forms, the subject of the next paper. This skull measured 129 millimetres in length. The thickest part of the cranial walls was 12 millimetres. The forehead appeared deficient ; it is retrocedent above the supraciliary arches, which are much developed as in the apes. The upper border of the orbit is quite straight, from which it might be inferred that the angulus externus palpebrarum was elevated as in the Chinese. He considers that the brachycephalic type of a part of the ancient Tuscan inhabitants, belonged, probably, to the Iberian and Ligurian stocks. Brachycephali have also been observed in the Abruzzi, and in Sicily.

M. de Quatrefages furnishes a short paper upon the influence of media, in which he adduces the origin in America of the Niassa ox, and the species without horns. He placed before the society a photograph of the only head of the former species at present in Europe, the face of which he describes as appearing to have suffered a general contraction, and to present some analogy; and to present an appearance somewhat analogous with that of the bull-dog, the inferior maxillary protruding beyond the superior. He observes that, as this conformation renders feeding more difficult; man would have no inducement to encourage the perpetuation of this variety, yet it retains its peculiar characters in spite of constant crossing, and transmits them in every cross with the ordinary species. M. de Quatre fages deduces from this fact conclusions in favour of the powerful influence of media upon the animal organism.

An interesting paper upon the remains found on the site of the

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Convent of the Mathurins at Paris, in June 1863, is given by M. Louis Leguay, from the researches of M. Arthur Forgeais. These remains, consisting of two skulls with a portion of a third, would appear, from the objects discovered with them, consisting of specimens of medieval pottery, to belong to the twelfth or thirteenth century. M. Bonté contributes an elaborate paper occupying seventy pages of the Bulletin, entitled an Analytical résumé of facts addressed in support of Medial Influence," which he considers one of the most fundamental questions of Anthropological science. The end which he proposes to himself in this communication, is to bring to their just value all the facts which have been considered up to the present time to be proofs of the influence of media. M. de Quatrefages describes a medium as "the collection of whatever conditions or influences, physical, intellectual or moral, are capable of acting upon organised beings." Taking this definition as his starting point, M. Bonté first discusses the proposition, that as media possess an immense influence upon animals and plants, they ought necessarily to have the same effect upon the human race; he shows that the analogy fails, in the first place, because, whereas nature has placed plants and animals in certain determined positions upon the earth's surface, she has endowed man with a desire of moving from place to place. Therefore, if man be cosmopolitan, and can adapt himself to any climate, it proves that climate has no influence upon his organisation; if man be incapable, on the other hand, of existing in all climates, it is a proof that his organsation is inflexible, and cannot be altered by, or accommodated to, the new climates in which he may find himself. The second argument against this analogy is founded upon the difference between the chemical composition of man and the vegetable; and the third on the difference in their relations with the atmosphere. Lastly, M. Bonté considers that the influences brought to bear upon plants or animals have been for the most part human or artificial influences, and cannot, therefore, be adduced as proofs in argument upon the operations of nature; that the fact of an animal being domesticated is an instance of violence done to nature, and its being restored to its savage state a mere cessation of that violence which results in a return to the natural state. He then goes on to say that one of two things must exist, viz.: either that the influence of media upon man is evident, as has been maintained, in which case man himself will furnish sufficient proof without looking elsewhere; or, on the contrary, this action is doubtful, in which case it will be better to wait until we obtain more evidence on the subject. With reference to the in

fluence of geographical conditions upon the various races of man, M. Bonté brings forward a large number of alleged instances of climatic action from Prichard, and M. de Quatrefages, in which those writers have endeavoured to show that a regular proportion exists between the heat of various climates, and the darkness of the skin of their inhabitants. He then adduces several of cases in which the darker tribes are found in the colder climates; whilst those who live in hotter localities are of much lighter colour. He then mentions the fact, that the inhabitants of large towns, who are necessarily less exposed to the sun than those of the country, are generally darker, as admitted by Prichard. The second theory which he discusses, is the influence upon the colour of the skin of a higher or lower, a damp or dry locality. With regard to the influence of food upon colour, M. Bonté only admits that a liberal supply will, by bringing the subject into a healthy state, perfect his natural colour, so that it will, he says, render the negro more black, the white man more white. We regret that we cannot follow this interesting paper through its details. The conclusion to which it arrives, is that "We have seen, as to the system of media, either facts positively denied as facts, or explained by reasons altogether independent of the action of media."

Correspondence.

THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL.

To the Editor of the Anthropological Review.

SIR, The enclosed letter, which I have just received from my able and energetic friend Dr. Pruner-Bey, will be of interest to your readers, if they think further arguments necessary to disprove the alleged affinity between the Neanderthal man and modern Australians. C. CARTER BLAKE.

April 22nd, 1864.

"28, Place de St. Victor, Paris, 19th April, 1864. "MOST EXCELLENT SIR,-I have twice to thank you, first of all for your kind attention to me personally, and in the second instance in the name of true science. With regard to this, I take the liberty to send you a copy taken from my memory, of what I had to submit to our Society here on the 7th of this month, about the man of Neanderthal. He is, what is of importance to me to establish before all, a Celt. 1. For, besides the large development of the frontal sinuses,

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there is, so far as the exterior surface is concerned, nothing in this skull deviating from the old Celtic type. 2. He is a Celt, because the cast of the cranial cavity, being compared by myself with sixty casts belonging to the most different human races, agrees with that of the modern Irish Celt (of which there is a very fine specimen in my collection). 3. He is a Celt; for one particularity regarding the right angle formed by the neck of the head of the femur with the body of this bone, as it is observable on the femur of the Neanderthal man, has been found by me chiefly on femurs arrived from 'Boulogne-sur-mer', and found with very ancient and true Celtic skulls. Besides these cases, the same particularity is to be seen on the femur of the finest skeleton in the Museum, that of a Celtic woman of Great Britain.

"Tell, if you please, the gentlemen who still talk about Australians in comparison with the Neanderthal man:-1. That my friend Schaaffhausen has shown the futility of this by exactly established measurements. 2. That if there is, besides the true Australian type, recognisable at twenty paces to every one who has taken the trouble to go near to it, another one with more lengthened and elliptic skull, found in the northern part of Australia; this last type belongs to immigrants from the Nigritic islands, as for instance, from New Guinea, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, etc.

"Still, nobody who has measured simply the length, and breadth, as also the circumference of such Nigritic skulls, will ever again confound them with the long-headed Celt of Neanderthal; for here, as in almost all the ancient Celts, the circumference as well as the transversal diameter are much larger than in those very improperly so-called Australian skulls, which are distinguished even by the simplicity and form of their sutures (a thing apparently so insignificant as this) from old and new European skulls. It is not our fault, if gentlemen at Sydney are in a loss. . . .

"Last of all, the most learned and acutely observing Professor King will allow me to observe to him in particular :

"1. That the elliptic form (segmental) of the occiput as well as of the coronal is truly characterising the Celtic type; that a triangular occipital squama is one of the many distinguishing characteristics of the old pre-Celtic brachycephalic skull, etc.

"2. That in consequence of the large development of the frontal sinuses, there is outside, of course, a receding forehead (internally it is quite different, as may be seen on the cast).

"3. That the badly advised legion of copyists still put in circulation the error about the absence of frontal sinuses in Australian, Tasmanian, etc. skulls, generally. Truly they are absent in some, but present in others of the skulls I studied belonging to these races.

"Excuse, sir, the liberty I take in this involuntary relief to my feelings. I have no motive to offend anybody of our worthy colleagues; but, pardon me, sometimes I lose patience, even here in the metropolis of civility. I have the honour to call myself, sir,

"Your très-humble élève et serviteur,

"DE PRUNER-BEY."