Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2012
Hitherto in matters craniological the student has been confronted with the primary difficulty that the series upon which he intends to work has been unearthed many years after burial. In consequence the question of age, sex, and nationality has remained a matter of doubt. In the present series of Hokien and Tamil skulls this difficulty has been entirely eliminated. As the skulls were collected immediately after death, the age, sex, and nationality of each is known. On removal from the body each skull had a metal tally attached to it, so that no error could arise in the process of preparation. In craniological and craniometrical work one frequently meets with the term “Chinese,” and the author is uncertain of the probable locality from which the skulls were obtained. China covers a vast expanse much larger than most people realise, and its inhabitants include a large variety of branches which vary widely in craniological features. Even in language and religion they differ, and it frequently happens that individuals living 100 miles from one another cannot understand each other's spoken language, although the written characters are identical. In fact the Hokiens call the Northern Chinese “foreigners.” The dissimilarity between the Cantonese Chinese and the Hylam Chinese skull is, I believe, as great as that between the Scottish and the German skull.