[From Manx Note Book vol 3]

THE
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
OF THE
ISLE OF MANN.

BY JOHN BEDDOE, M.D., F.R.S.

THE HISTORICAL ELEMENTS OF MANX ethnology, so far as known, are sufficiently simple. The existence here of a pre-Celtic population, however strongly probable, has not, so far as I am aware, been actually demonstrated. At the dawn of local history the inhabitants seem to have spoken, as now, a tongue belonging to the Gaelic branch of the Celtic languages. The extent of which they were subsequently crossed by Norwegian or other Scandinavian invaders affords matter for doubt and discussion. The long duration of the connection, the repeated conquests of the Island by fresh swarms, the intercourse with the Ostmen of Dublin and with the rulers of the Hebrides, the persistence of Scandinavian laws and customs, and lastly, the fertility and attractive-ness of the Island compared with most of the lands that lay open to the Norsemen, would lead one to expect to find the Norse element in the population very strong. On the other hand, the conquering race did not succeed in imposing their language on the conquered; and the proportion which Scandinavian local names bear to Celtic ones is not very large, much less than in the Lewis or in Cumberland, less even than in Isla, I believe. On the whole, using the term Celtic to represent all those elements of population which existed in the Island prior to the earliest Norse settlement, I should expect to find Celtic blood still predominant, though not over poweringly so.

Mr. A. W. Moore informs me that several prevalent surnames attest the importance of the Irish immigration, which probably took place towards the end of the XIVth century. These surnames, however, are the Celtic appellations of Anglo-Irish families or clans; and the persons who originally bore them, if not actually Anglo-Irish, had probably some strain at least of English or Ostman blood; they were not, therefore, purely a re-inforcement for the Celtic-blooded Manxmen. Subsequent immigration into the rural districts, whether from England, Scotland, or Ireland, appears to have been less than might have been expected; and cases where the same family has resided on the same land for very many generations seem to be nowise uncommon.

During a recent visit to the Island, I had opportunity to measure thirty-one heads of men belonging to pure Manx families, of whom seven belonged to Craigneish, seven to Sulby or Kirk Michael, and the remainder to various parts of the Island. I also observed the colors of the eyes and hair of 265 persons of both sexes, met with either in the market of Douglas or in rural parishes : a few of these may have been "foreigners," but many certainly were natives, and I believe that almost all were so. The tables annexed give the principal results of these measurements and observations.

My methods of measurement are pretty fully described in my work on the " Races of Britain," pp. 7 and 8. It may be well, however, to quote there from the principal points.

With the callipers I take (i) the maximum length from the glabella, (2) the length from the inion or occipital tuberosity to the most prominent part of the frontal arch, (3) the glabella-inial length, (4) the maxi mum length, according to Flower and Barnard Davis, from the ophryon or fiat space above the glabella, (5) the vertico-mental length, or that of the whole head from crown to chin.

Of breadths I take (i) the frontal minimum, just above the brows; (2) the breadth at the step hanion, or maximum frontal; (3) the maximum zygomatic or jugal breadth; (4) the auricular breadth; (5) the maximum of the head, wherever found; (6) the intermastoid, between the most prominent parts of the mastoid curve; (7) the breadth between the angles of the lower jaw.

With the graduated tape I take, of circumferences, (i) in the line of length i, (which is usually the maximum circumference) ; and 2, 3, 4, in the lines of lengths 2, 3, and 4 respectively; and of arcs, (i) the naso-inial from the root of the nose to the inion, (2) the transverse, from a point opposite the centre of one meatus auditorius to one opposite the other, across the vertex, and (3) that between these last points across the brow-ridges.

The method of classification of the eyes and hair may perhaps be left to explain itself; but what I call the " Index of Nigrescence" requires some comment. It is arrived at by substracting the number of the persons with red or fair hair from that of those with dark-brown or with black hair, the black-haired being doubled in order to give full value to the greater strength of the dark-haired type manifested by blackness. Brown or chestnut hair is looked upon as neutral, and left out of the equation, which stands thus— (Dark + 2 Black)—(Red + Fair)=Index of Nigrescence.

The index affords a rough and ready method of ascertaining the difference between two or more sets of people with regard to fairness or darkness of hair.

The first notable point about these Manx heads is their large size, especially in their dimensions of breadth. Very little selection was exercised in procuring these data, no qualification being required except pure Manx descent: several of the persons were policemen, others farmers, fishermen, parish clerks, artizans, etc.; so that the sample is probably a fair one~ On dividing them into three sections, one from Craigneish, one from the northern parishes, and a third from the centre and from Castletown, some differences appear between the three, but these can be traced to extreme forms occurring in individuals; the majority conforming fairly to one leading type. There is a considerable resemblance, apparently, in the headforms of the Manx and the Scottish Highlanders, and, in a less degree, of the Irish. But the first are pretty uniformally broader, and in dimensions of breadth approach much more closely to those of the Norwegians. From the latter they differ remarkably in the greater length of the naso-inial arc, which is connected with a greater prominence of brows and of occiput, as well as with an apparently lower position of the inion. In the norma verticalis the head usually gives the impression of being oblong rather than oval or elliptic: the breadth of the anterior temporal region is too great as a rule to allow of its being called pyriform.

The breadth of the cheekbones is a very marked feature in the Manxmen: they are not usually so prominent in the face as in the Irish or in many Scottish Highlanders, and in their breadth and flatness remind one more of some Norwegian faces. Occasionally one sees, especially among the women, very broad faces with a Turanian or Kalmuk phyisognomy and coarse black or blackish hair; whether these have descended from a primitive Turanian, possibly palceolithic, population, or from Ugrian thralls brought hither by the Norsemen, I cannot say; but the same type occurs in Shetland as well as in Wales and Ireland: it is not common in the Highlands. The Manx face is usually long, and either scutiform or oval: the former is the outline most prevalent among the Scandinavians, the latter among the Highlanders and western Irish. The nose is almost always of good length: in outline it is oftener straight, less often sinuous than among the Highlanders and Irish. The influence of the Norwegian cross is shewn also in the colour of the hair. Red hair is not frequent nor very bright: fair and light-brown hair are very common, and the Index of Nigrescence is decidedly lower than in most parts of the Highlands or of Ireland. The distribution and combinations of color have more resemblance to those found in some other Scandio-Gaelic districts than to any others in my schedules; such districts are Wexford, Waterford, some of the Islands off the coast of Argyle, and perhaps the Lewis. But the exact proportions of hair-color, together with the great frequency of neutral eyes, are not reproduced anywhere else. Blue eyes are less common, I think, than grey; and dark shades of grey, varying towards green and brown, are very frequent. What are called "black" eyes are rare. The hair is pretty copious, straight or wavy, seldom strongly curled or very brightly coloured.

The material for my tables respecting the stature has been collected under the auspices of Mr. A. W. Moore. His instructions to the observers seem not to have been invariably carried out in their entirety; and the sample may not, therefore, be an absolutely fair one; still it is sufficiently so, I think, to have considerable value. All the policemen, porters, and cardrivers were certainly measured without shoes; and this condition was properly carried out also in many other cases,* but apparently not in all. It is probable that the subtraction of .57 inch or 1½ centimetre from the figures given would yield an average barefoot stature (5 feet 8½ inches) not far from correct. The clothing and boots would in most cases, especially in those of the farmers, farm labourers, miners, and fishermen, be pretty heavy; if we allowed 13½~ lbs. for them, we should get an average naked weight of 155 lbs English; or, in French measure and weight, 1740 millimetres and 70.37 kilogrammes. I do not think that these figures would be much beyond the truth: the Manx are certainly a tall and large race of men, and eight unselected individuals observed by myself gave the same height to a fraction. Still, inspection of my second table of stature, in which the individual heights are detailed, raises a suspicion that a few of the smaller men may have escaped measurement. The Scandio-Gaelic cross in the British Isles is everywhere of tall stature.

On the whole, the physical characters perfectly agree with the history, and with the view above expressed, viz., that the Norse element in the blood is very strong, though less strong than the Gaelic or Ibero-Gaelic.

If called upon to classify the heads measured individually, I should say that among the thirty-one, one was distinctly Turanian in type, one belonged to the bronze race, one was pretty purely Iberian, and one anomalous; that one was purely Teutonic, and three were nearly so, while at least four presented decided Gaelic types; and that the remaining nineteen were what I have called Scandio-Gaelic. The Turanian and two of the Gaels belonged to the secluded southern hamlet of Craigneish; while three of the Teutons or Norsemen were born in the north of the Island. It may be remarked that dark hair is rather prevalent in and about Craigneish, and light shades about Sulby (in the northern parish of Lezayre); but whether there be any decided difference between the southern and the northern men, taken en masse, I am not prepared to say. The settlement of the southern half of the Island by the followers of Godred Crovan has been taken to imply a stronger Norse element there; but I do not think we have any right to draw such an inference. The dispossessed landholders, who retired to the north, were probably as Scandinavian in blood as the new corners. I should place more reliance on the results of the investigation which Mr. A. W. Moore is making into the etymology of the old local names.

In conclusion, my thanks are due to several persons who have given me material assistance in the craniometrical part of my enquiry, and especially to the Rev. Ernest B. Savage and the Rev. B. Browne, and to my companions in travel, Professors Boyd Dawkins and John Rhys.

*Including that of the tallest farmer.

COLOR OF THE EYES AND HAIR IN 265 INHABITANTS OF THE ISLE OF MANN.

HEAD-MEASUREMENTS OF 31 PURE-BLOODED MANXMEN.

table tba

STATURE OF NATIVE MANXMEN. NUMBERS MEASURED AT OR ABOVE THE SEVERAL HEIGHTS.

The Editor takes this opportunity of thanking the Revs. W. Kermode and F. LaMothe, Captain Kitto, Assistant Superintendent Fayle, and Messrs. W. J. Cain, ]un., H. T. Graves, D. Maitland, Egbert Rydings, and Frederick Swinnerton, who have assisted him in the statistics of stature.

STATURE & WEIGHT OF NATIVE MANXMEN, MOSTLY OF OLD LOCAL DESCENT, ACCORDING TO OCCUPATION.