Animated discussions were held some years ago to decide which of these two types preceded the other. This question again is connected with a number of general ideas which may be designated as the _mongoloid theory_. At the conclusion of some excavations among ancient tombs and a few dolmens, Serres announced in 1854 that the inhabitants of France reckoned Mongolians among their ancestors. Some time previous to this, some Scandinavian savants, among others S. Nilsson, Retzius, Eschricht, etc., had connected with the Lapps, that is to say with the Finnish race, round-headed skeletons which had been discovered in the neolithic tombs and the peat-bogs of Scania. M. Pruner Bey, combining these earlier notions with the data recently acquired concerning the antiquity of man, has formulated by degrees a complete theory, remarkable for its simplicity and for the light which it throws upon the whole past history of the populations of France. In the opinion of this eminent anthropologist, there still exists at the present time a vast human formation which he designates _mongoloid_, because it appears to him to be connected in certain respects with the Mongol type, properly so called, whilst at the same time preserving a certain number of characters in which it resembles the white races. This great race, as it is understood by M. Pruner Bey, occupies the greater portion of the north of the old continent, and extends even into America. It is, moreover, represented in the centre and south of Europe by several more or less isolated groups, such as the Basques. Certain historical populations, such as the Ligurians, have belonged to it. There is every indication of its having once occupied the whole of Europe. Now, this race itself is descended from the primitive quaternary race, as it is known to us through the fossil skulls found by M. Dupont at Furfooz in the valley of the Lesse. The parentage and filiation of these races appear to M. Pruner Bey to be attested by the general form of the skull and by its proportions, which in all these races are more or less brachycephalic.