XXIV.—A Contribution to the Craniology of the People of Scotland. Part I., Anatomical

William Turner

doi:10.1017/S0080456800034724

XXIV.—A Contribution to the Craniology of the People of Scotland. Part I., Anatomical

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2012

William Turner

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Up to the present time no systematic account of the cranial characters of the people of Scotland has been published. Incidental references to, and measurements of, a limited number of Scottish skulls may indeed be found in the writings of various authors, as in Sir Daniel Wilson's Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, in Drs Davis and Thurnam's Crania Britannica, and in Professor Cleland's Memoir on Variations in the Human Skull. Measurements of five Scottish crania are recorded by Sir W. H. Flower in the Osteological Catalogue (Man) of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, four of which were found amongst the ruins of an ancient Culdee Monastery at St Andrews, and the fifth is said to be that of a Highlander. Dr Barnard Davis, in his Thesaurus Craniorum, gives the measurements of a somewhat larger number, six of which were from Caithness, and one is stated to be a Scottish Highlander. The same skulls have been remeasured and described by Dr J. G. Garson.

Type: Research Article
Information: Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , 1905 , pp. 547 - 613

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0080456800034724 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1905

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References

^{page 547 note *} Philosophical Transactions, 1869.

^{page 547 note †} Osteology of the ancient inhabitants of the Orkney Islands. Journal Anthropological Institute, vol. xiii., 1883Google Scholar

^{page 549 note *} This term is adopted from Professor Cleland's “Memoir on Variations in the Human Skull” (op. cit.).

^{page 551 note *} I continue to use this term in preference to orthocephalic, as recommended by the German craniologists in the Frankfurt agreement, for the reasons given in my Challenger Report, 1884, note, p. 5.

^{page 556 note *} 1st edition, p. 175, 1851.

^{page 557 note *} I have described a similar condition in the right parietal of an Admiralty Islander in Challenger Reports, 1884,. part xxix. plate iv. p. 57, and in the right parietal of an Australian in Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, vol. xxv. pp. 462–473.

^{page 564 note *} 1851, pp. 166, 176.; also Phrenological Journal and Miscellany, vol. viii. p. 185.

^{page 564 note †} Phrenological Journal and Miscellany, vol. vii. p. 287.

^{page 572 note *} A description of the find is given by me in Proc. Scot. Soc. Antiquarie, June 1865, vol. vi. p. 245Google Scholar.

^{page 582 note *} See Laing, and Huxley's, Prehistoric Remains in Caithness (London, 1866Google Scholar), in which I gave a detailed description of this skull. Several skulls from this Burial Mound are described by Professor Huxley: they varied in the cephalic index from 70 to 78. The so-called mound was on the natural terrace of sand and shingle parallel and close to the sea beach, and was scarcely elevated above the surface of the terrace. Stones were found in two of the graves which Mr Laing regarded as rude stone implements, and lie associated the burials with the early stone period. The bodies had been buried in the extended position in long graves covered with flat stones, whilst the walls were formed of unhewn flagstones, a mode of burial which is known to have prevailed during the Christian era, and examples of which are not uncommon on the sea shore. It is questionable if these burials had the antiquity which Mr Laing has ascribed to them. See also Proc. Scottish Soc. Antiquaries, vol. vii. p. 38, 1870Google Scholar.

^{page 587 note *} Phrenological Journal, vol. ix. p. 80, 1830Google Scholar.

^{page 587 note †} Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, first edition, p. 173, 1851.

^{page 593 note *} Zoology, part xxix., 1884, and part xlvii., 1886.

^{page 593 note †} Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., part i., 1899; part ii., 1901.

^{page 594 note *} In Greenwell's British Borrows, p. 506, 1877, and in vol. i. Scientific Paper and Addresses, edited by W. Turner.

^{page 595 note *} Accessory Sinuses of the Nose, p. 105. Edin., 1901.

^{page 596 note *} Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xxxix. p. 744, 1899Google Scholar.

^{page 597 note *} See my memoir on Indian Crania, part i., Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xxxix., 1899Google Scholar.

^{page 597 note †} See Challenger Reports, “Zoology,” part xxix., 1884, pp. 64 and 66, and part xlvii., 1886, p. 125.

^{page 598 note *} I prefer, for the reasons stated in my Challenger Report, 1884, to employ the descriptive term metriocephalic rather than orthocephalic, as recommended by the German craniologists in the Frankfurt agreement (Archiv für Anthropologie, Bd. xv. p. 1, 1884Google Scholar). In this memoir I have, however, adopted the numerical subdivision of the group which they have suggested, viz., chamæcephalic up to 70, metriocephalic (orthocephalic) 70·1–75; hypsicephalic, 75·1 and upwards.

^{page 599 note *} Dr Barnard Davis introduced the term hypsistenocephalic to designate the high, narrow dolichocephalic crania of natives of islands in the Western Pacific (Natuurkundige Verhandelingen, Deel. xxiv., Haarlem, 1866), and I propose that it should have a more general application, as in the text. The term platychamæcephalic is now suggested to designate wide and low crania.

^{page 599 note †} See my memoir in Challenger Report, 1884; also on New Guinea Skulls in Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, July 1899, and on Indian Crania in Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 1899 and 1901.

^{page 600 note *} For the relations of the longitudinal are to the base line of the cranium, see p. 610.

^{page 601 note *} Challenger Reports, “Zoology,” part xxix., 1884.

^{page 601 note †} Archiv für Anthropologie, supplement, vol. xiii. p. 53, 1882Google Scholar.

^{page 606 note *} Instructions craniologiques, p. 77.

^{page 606 note †} Archiv für Anthropologie, Bd. xv. s. 5, 1884Google Scholar.

^{page 606 note ‡} “Cranial Characters of Fiji Islanders,” Journ. Anthrop. Inst., November 1880.

^{page 606 note §} 1884, p. 7, and Journ. Anat. and Phys., vol. xvi. p. 135, October 1881Google Scholar.

^{page 608 note *} Jour, of Anat. and Phys., Nov. 1866, vol. iGoogle Scholar.

^{page 608 note †} Ibid., July 1877, vol. xi., and Memoir on Variations already cited.

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XXIV.—A Contribution to the Craniology of the People of Scotland. Part I., Anatomical

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