1. MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS (_continued_).
_Cranium or Skull_: Cranial measurements--Orbits and orbital
index--Nasal bone and nasal index--Prognathism--_Head of the living
subject_: Cephalic index--Face--Eyes--Nose and nasal index in the
living subject--Lips--_Trunk and Limbs_: The Skeleton--Pelvis
and its indices--Shoulder blade--Thoracic limb--Abdominal
limb--_Proportions of the body in the living subject_: Trunk and
neck--Curve of the back--Steatopygy--_Various Organs_: Genital
organs--Brain--Its weight--Convolutions--The neuron--Its importance
from the psychical point of view.
Having treated of the body in its general aspect, we shall now examine
from the morphological point of view its different parts: the head,
trunk, limbs, etc., as well as their relations to each other and their
reciprocal dimensions, both in the skeleton and the living subject.
_Cranium or Skull._--This part of the skeleton forms the object
of investigation of a very extended branch of anthropology called
craniology.
Craniology must not be confounded with the cranioscopy of the
phrenologists, a sham science founded by Gall, who wished to establish
a connection between certain bumps or irregularities of the surface of
the skull and the parts of the brain in which, as was pretended, were
localised the different intellectual functions. It is now demonstrated
that the inequalities of the external table of the cranium walls have
no relation whatever with the irregularities of the internal table, and
still less have they anything in common with the conformation of the
various parts of the brain. But if there be no such direct connection
as this between the cranium and the brain, there is nevertheless a
certain remote relation between them, and the brain has attained such
a development in man that the study of everything which concerns it,
immediately or remotely, possesses great interest. This would alone
suffice to explain the pre-eminent position assigned to craniology
in the natural history of man. But there exist still other reasons
why the study of the skull is one of the most cultivated branches of
anthropology. As in the case of all the other mammals, the skull in man
is one of the parts of the skeleton, and even of the entire body, which
exhibits the greatest number of well-marked variations. The differences
in the form and the dimensions of the skull in correlation with those
of the brain and the masticatory organs, serve to distinguish races
and species, both in man and other vertebrata. Besides, the teeth,
which characterise not only genera but even families and orders of
the mammifera, are always attached to the skull, though not forming
part of the bony system. We may also observe that the skull, with the
other bones of the skeleton, constitutes the only anatomical document
of prehistoric man which has come down to us; it is only in studying
it that we can connect and compare, from the point of view of physical
type, existing with extinct races of mankind.
The characters that may be observed in the skull are very numerous, and
may be divided into _descriptive_ characters, which give an account
of the conformation of the bony structure of the head and its parts,
and _craniometrical_ characters, which give the dimensions of these
parts by exact measurements taken by means of special apparatus or
instruments. These two orders of characters are complementary to each
other. The cranial characters vary according to race, but within the
limits of each race there are other lesser variations according to age
and sex.
The general form of the cranium, as also the number, the consistence,
and structure of the different parts which compose it are modified
as the individual develops and grows older. Formed of a single
cartilaginous and membranous substance at the beginning of embryonic
life, the cranium is composed in the last fœtal state of a great
number of _points of ossification of various texture_. At birth the
number of these points has considerably diminished; they have united
for the most part to form the different parts of the _bones of the
cranium_ or _brain case_ and the _bones of the face_; as the child
grows, these points grow and end by being contiguous; about the age
of eighteen or twenty years they form bones separated by _sutures_.
There are twenty-one separated bones described in classic treatises
on anatomy. Later on these bones begin to unite, the _sutures_ which
separate them disappear, and in extreme old age the cranium is formed
of a bony mass almost as continuous and homogeneous as was the cranial
cartilaginous and membranous mass in the embryo. According to the
number of the pieces composing the cranium, and also according to their
position, structure, and conformation, according to the degree of
obliteration of the sutures and the order in which the obliteration of
each suture takes place, according to the general form of the forehead,
the angle of the lower jaw, according to the volume and dimensions of
the skull, and lastly, according to the state of the dentition, etc.,
the nearly exact age of the individual to whom the skull had belonged
may easily be discovered in this cycle of development. Other characters
serve to distinguish the sex: the forehead is straight and rounded in
woman, retreating in man; the cranial cavity is less in woman than in
man in any given race; the orbital edges are sharper in woman, the
impress of the muscles less marked, the weight of the skull in general
less than that of the masculine skull, etc.[56] Lastly, the characters
of race are numerous and special. I shall proceed briefly to enumerate
some of them. First in order of importance comes _cranial capacity_, or
the volume of the cavity of the brain-case, which gives an idea of the
volume of the brain, and approximately of its weight.
Cranial capacity may vary to the extent of double the minimum figure
(from 1100 cubic centimetres to 2200 cubic centimetres) among normal
individuals in the human race. The average capacity for the races of
Europe is from 1500 to 1600 cubic centimetres; that of the skulls of
Asiatic races appears to be very nearly the same; that of the Negro
races and Oceanians a little smaller, perhaps from 1400 to 1500 cubic
centimetres on an average. That of the Australians, the Bushmen, and
the Andamanese is still less, from 1250 to 1350 cubic centimetres.
But it must not be forgotten that the volume of the head, as with
its other dimensions, has a certain relation to the height of the
individual, and, as a matter of fact, Bushmen and Andamanese are very
short in stature; Australians, however, are of average height. Partly,
too, to their disproportion of height must, probably, be attributed
the difference between the volume of the cranium in man and in woman.
According to the series examined, this sexual difference may extend
from 100 to 200 cubic centimetres, and even beyond, in favour of
man. The cranial capacity of woman represents from eighty-five to
ninety-five of the cranial capacity of man.[57] The cranial capacity
of lunatics, of certain criminals, and especially of celebrated or
distinguished men, scholars, artists, statesmen, etc., appears to be
slightly superior to the average of their race. We shall revert later
to the question of cranial capacity in connection with weight of brain.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 10.--Dolichocephalic skull of an islander of
Torres Straits. Cephalic index, 61.9.
(_After O. Thomas._)]
[Illustration: /Fig./ 11.--Brachycephalic skull of a Ladin of Pufels
(Tyrol). Cephalic index, 95.
(_After Holl._)]
The general form of the brain-case is an oval, but this oval may
be more or less rounded, quite globular (Fig. 11), or more or less
elongated to resemble an ellipse, the major axis of which is almost
double the minor (Fig. 10). The numerical expression of the cranial
form is given in anthropology by what is called the _cephalic
index_--that is to say, by the relation of the length of the cranium
(ordinarily measured from the glabella to the most prominent point of
the occiput (Figs. 10 and 13, /A B/) to its greatest breadth (Fig.
10, /C D/, Fig. 12, /M N/)). Reducing uniformly the first of these
measurements to 100, we obtain the different figures for the breadth,
which expresses the cranial form; thus very round skulls (Fig. 11)
have 85, 90, and even 100 (extreme individual limit) for index, while
elongated skulls (Fig. 10) may have an index of 70, of 65, and even
of 58 (extreme individual limit). According to Broca’s nomenclature,
skulls having indices between 77.7 and 80 are mesaticephalic or
mesocephalic; those having the indices below this figure are
sub-dolichocephalic (up to 75), or dolichocephalic (beyond 75, Fig.
10); those which have the index above 80 are sub-brachycephalic (up
to 83.3), or brachycephalic (above 83.3, Fig. 11).[58] Peoples or
ethnic groups being formed of various elements, it is in most cases
impossible to determine, after the examination of an isolated skull, to
which population it belongs; all that can be said is that the skull is
brachy- or dolicho-cephalic, orthognathous or prognathous, etc. We must
have a certain number of skulls (from ten to thirty at least, according
to the homogeneity of the population) to be able to discern the
constituent elements of this population as far as they are manifested
in the cranial characteristics. The _average_ measurements are then
deduced from a given number of skulls, by adding the individual
measurements and dividing them by the number of skulls examined. But
the average of any measurement whatever only gives a very general and
somewhat vague idea of the actual dimensions of skulls. To determine
it we must _co-ordinate_ and _seriate_ these skulls--that is to say,
arrange them, for example, in an ascending order of figures expressing
their cephalic index. In this manner we can discover one or several
indices around which the skulls are grouped in the largest number. It
is thus that we can often discern two or three cranial elements in the
same population.[59]
If we apply these methods to the study of the cephalic index, we see
that generally the crania of Negroes, Melanesians, Eskimo, Ainus,
Berbers, the races of Northern Europe, etc., are dolichocephalic, while
those of the Turkish peoples, the Malays, certain Slavs, Tyrolese,
etc., are brachycephalic; that the dolichocephalic predominate in Great
Britain, while the brachycephalic are in a majority in France, etc.
(See p. 75, and Appendix II.)
The relation of the height to the breadth or to the length of the
skull gives likewise an idea of its general form. It is thus that
we recognise low skulls (platycephalic), medium (orthocephalic or
metriocephalic), or high (hypsicephalic).
In order more correctly to describe the different peculiarities
of the cranium, and to be able to refer the measurements to fixed
co-ordinates, it is desirable to place the skull, when being studied,
on a horizontal plane. Unfortunately, anthropologists are far from
being agreed as to this initial plane. In France, in England, and
in many other countries, that adopted is the alveolocondylean plane
of Broca (Fig. 13, /L K/), which passes through the condyles and
the alveolar border of the upper jaw; it is nearly parallel to the
horizontal plane passing through the visual axes of the two eyes in
the living subject; whilst in Germany the plane still in favour is one
passing through the inferior border of the orbit and the centre or
top of the contour of the auditory meatus[60] (Fig. 13, /N M/). The
skull once conveniently placed in position according to a horizontal
plane, the different views of it are the following: seen from above
(_norma verticalis_ of Blumenbach, Figs. 10 and 11), from below (_norma
basilaris_), from the side or in profile (_norma lateralis_, Fig. 13),
from the full face (_norma facialis_, Fig. 12), or from behind (_norma
occipitalis_).
In regard to the face, different measurements express its general
form; thus the relation of the bi-zigomatic length (Fig. 12, /I G/) to
the total height of the bony structure of the head (Fig. 12, /K L/),
or to its partial height from the glabella to the alveolar border of
the upper jaw-bone (Fig. 12, /F H/), serves to separate skulls into
brachy-or dolicho-facial, or, as they are also called, _chamæprosopes_
and _leptoprosopes_. Other characters, such as the excessive
development of the supraciliary ridges (Fig. 13, /A/), also give a
special physiognomy to the bony structure of the face.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 12.--Skull of ancient Egyptian exhumed at Thebes,
with principal craniometrical lines.]
But the parts that deserve particular attention are the orbits and
the nasal skeleton. The orbital orifice represents a quadrilateral
figure more or less irregular, more or less angular or rounded, the
length and breadth of which can be measured. According to Broca,[61]
the breadth is measured from the point called dacrion (Fig. 12, /X/)
(situated at the intersection of the fronto-lachrymal suture and the
crista lachrymalis) to the most distant point of the opposite edge of
the orbit (Fig. 12, /Y/); the height (Fig. 12, /T Z/) is also measured
perpendicularly to the preceding line. The relation of this height to
the breadth = 100, or the orbital index, expresses in figures the form
of the more or less shallow quadrilateral of the orbit. What are called
average orbits, or _mesosemes_, are those whose index varies from 83
(Broca), or from 84 (Flower), to 89; shallow orbits, or _microsemes_,
those which have the index lower than 83 or 84; finally, higher or
large orbits, _megasemes_, those which have their index from 90 and
upwards. The annexed table gives the orbital indices of the principal
populations of the globe.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 13.--Same skull as Fig. 12, profile view.]
TABLE OF ORBITAL INDICES.
(Crania of both Sexes together; series of more than 10 subjects.)
-------+-----------------------+-------+------------------
No. of | |Orbital|
Crania.| Ethnic Groups. |Index. | Observer.
-------+-----------------------+-------+------------------
MICROSEMES.
-------+-----------------------+-------+------------------
49 |New Caledonians | 80.6 | Broca.
14 |Tasmanians | 80.8 | Flower.
101 |Australians | 81.5 | Fl., Tur., C.E.[62]
22 |Kaffirs | 83 | Broca.
21 |Bushmen | 83 | Turner.
16 |Hottentots | 83.9 |}
53 |Spanish Basques of | |}Broca, Hamy
| Zaraus | 83.6 |}
-------+-----------------------+-------+------------------
MESOSEMES (84-89).
-------+-----------------------+-------+------------------
23 |Papuans of the | |
| Northwest(Rubi) | 84 | C.E.
20 |Ruck Islanders | |
| (Carolines) | 84.1 | Virchow.
11 |Croats | 84.3 | Broca.
20 |Papuans in general | 84.4 | Broca.
13 |Botocudos | 84.7 | Rey.
68 |Melanesians | 85.1 | Flower.
132 |Ainus | 85.2 | Koganei.
20 |Negroes of Kordofan | 85.1 | Broca.
84 |Western Negroes | 85.4 | Broca.
96 |Papuans of the | |
| N. W. (Kordo) | 85.8 | C.E.
11 |Natives of | |
| Admiralty Islands | 86 | Turner.
43 |Negroes | 86.3 | Flower.
80 |Auvergnats | 86.5 | Broca.
11 |Vitians (Fiji) | 87 | Flower.
18 |Maori | 87 | Turner.
208 |Various Europeans | 87 | Flower.
48 |Fuegians | 87.5 | Mantegazza, Hya., Den.
31 |Japanese | 88 | Baelz.
63 |Southern Bretons | 88.1 | Broca.
19 |Eskimo | 88.2 | Broca.
33 |English | 88.4 | Flower.
43 |Veddahs | 88.5 | Sarasin, Fl.
28 |Corsicans | 88.6 | Broca.
26 |Kabyles | 88.9 | Broca.
16 |Hindus | 89.2 | Flower.
11 |Bugis of Mangkassar | 89.2 | C.E.
28 |Berbers | 89.5 | C.E.
28 |Arabs | 89.5 | Ten Kate.
11 |Dyaks | 89.8 | C.E.
19 |Javanese | 89.5 | C.E.
12 |Tatars of the Volga | 89.5 | C.E.
-------+-----------------------+-------+------------------
MEGASEMES (90 AND UPWARDS).
-------+-----------------------+-------+------------------
69 |Kalmuks | 90.2 | Den., Ivanovs.
26 |Indians of N. America | 90.8 | Broca.
13 |Modern Mexicans | 90.8 | Broca.
43 |Javanese | 91.1 | Broca.
88 |Polynesians | 91.6 | Fl., Broca.
14 |Andamanese | 91.7 | Flower.
127 |Am. Indians in gen. | 91.7 | Broca.
17 |Malays | 91.9 | C.E.
30 |Peruvians not deformed | 92 | Broca.
16 |Modern Aztecs | 92.1 | C.E.
-------+-----------------------+-------+------------------
The capacity of the orbital cavity and its depth are also measured,
but, as the researches of L. Weiss have demonstrated, there is no
correlation between the form of the skull (dolicho- or brachy-cephalic)
and this depth. On the other hand, it appears to have some relation
with the form of the face; broad faces (_chamæprosopes_) have deeper
orbits than long faces (_leptoprosopes_).[63]
The skeleton of the nose presents numerous variations according to
race. The nasal bones may be more or less inclined, one in relation
with another, so as to form either an almost flat plane or a sort of
prominent roof; their outline may be straight, concave, or convex;
their breadth and their length also vary. The form of these bones,
together with the nasal opening which is found below, may be expressed
by the figures of the nasal index--that is to say, of the relation
between the height of the bony mass (from the root of the nose to
the anterior nasal spine) and its breadth (lines /V B/ and
/E D/ of Fig. 12). According to the greater or lesser breadth
of the nasal bones and of the nasal opening, the skull is called
_leptorhinian_ (long-nosed) or _platyrhinian_ (flat-nosed); the
intermediate forms bear the name of _mesorhinian_. The form of the
nasal opening appears to be transmitted very tenaciously by heredity
(Broca).
The following table, in which I have introduced only series of more
than ten skulls, gives the distribution of the principal ethnic groups
according to their nasal index.
It is easy to see in running the eye over this table, that almost all
the populations of the so-called white races are leptorhinians, while
all the yellow populations are comprised exclusively in the group of
mesorhinians, and Negroes and Bushmen in that of the platyrhinians.
The Polynesians seem to be leptorhinians, the Melanesians with the
Australians show a tendency towards platyrhiny.
NASAL INDEX OF THE CRANIUM.
(Series of more than 10 Skulls of both Sexes together.)
---------+---------------------------------+------+-----------------
Number of| |Nasal |
Skulls. | Ethnic Groups. |Index.| Observer.
---------+---------------------------------+------+-----------------
/Leptorhinians/ (less than 48).
---------+---------------------------------+------+-----------------
46 |Eskimo | 42.2 |Broca, Flower
54 |Spanish Basques | 43.8 |Broca
17 |Guanches | 44.2 |Broca
28 |Arabs | 44.4 |C.E.
28 |Berbers | 46.2 |C.E.
32 |English | 46.0 |Flower
83 |Auvergnats | 46.2 |Broca
17 |Frisians | 46.3 |Topinard
122 |Parisians | 46.7 |Broca
12 |Tatars of the Volga | 47.1 |Ten Kate
52 |Argentine Araucans | 47.1 |Ten Kate
127 |American Indians in general | 47.2 |Ten Kate
48 |Fuegians | 47.5 |Mant., Hyad.,
| | | Den.
15 |Botocudos | 47.2 |Rey., Virch.
18 |Maoris | 47.5 |Turner
88 |Polynesians | 47.9 |Flower, Broca
---------+---------------------------------+------+-----------------
/Mesorhinians/ (48-53).
---------+---------------------------------+------+-----------------
11 |Natives of the Admiralty Is. | 48.0 |Flower
72 |Italians of Lombardy | 48.3 |Flower
28 |Sardinians | 48.6 |Flower
66 |Kalmuks | 49.0 |Denik., Ivanovs.
94 |Chinese | 49.1 |T. K., Br., Fl.
31 |Japanese | 49.5 |T. K., Baelz
16 |Hindus | 50.0 |C.E.
11 |Bugis of Mangkassar | 50.0 |C.E.
21 |Annamese | 50.1 |Topinard
33 |Marvars (India) | 50.0 |Flower
21 |Russians (chiefly of Kazan) | 50.3 |Malief
14 |Andamanese | 50.6 |Flower
126 |Ainus | 50.9 |Koganei
19 |Inhab. of Ruck Isl. (Carolines) | 51.2 |Virchow
29 |Permiaks | 51.7 |Malief
43 |Veddahs | 51.8 |Saras., Flower
17 |Malays | 51.9 |C.E.
11 |Dyaks | 51.9 |Montano
135 |New Caledonians | 52.3 |C.E.
16 |Modern Aztecs | 52.1 |C.E.
---------+---------------------------------+------+-----------------
/Platyrhinians/ (over 53).
---------+---------------------------------+------+-----------------
25 |Negroes of Fernando Po | 53.7 |Topinard
11 |Negroes of the Sudan, | |
|Darfour, etc. | 54.2 |C.E.
35 |Negroes of Senegal | 55.1 |C.E.
25 |Negroes of Upper Guinea | 55.2 |C.E.
22 |Nubians (Bejas) | 55.1 |Broca
18 |Negroes of Kordofan | 55.4 |Topinard
13 |Fijians of Viti-Levu (interior) | 56.5 |Flower
132 |Australians | 56.2 |Fl., Br., Turner,
| | |C.E.
21 |Bushmen | 58.4 |Turner
15 |Negroes of Lower Guinea | 58.8 |C.E.
12 |Kafirs | 61.7 |C.E.
---------+---------------------------------+------+-----------------
_Prognathism_, that is to say the degree of projection of the
maxillary portion of the face, is a characteristic trait of certain
skulls; however, it does not seem to play so important a part in the
classification of races as anthropologists had thought twenty or thirty
years ago. It presents too many individual varieties to be taken as a
distinctive character of race. The degree of prognathism is measured by
means of different _facial angles_, of which that of Cloquet, passing
by the forehead, the upper alveolar point (between the two incisors),
and the external auditory meatus (Fig. 13, /F O K/), is one of the
best. However, as it expresses the relation of points too far removed
from each other, it is better to confine ourselves to the measurement
of _alveolar prognathism_, that is to say, of the sub-nasal projection
of the face. This prognathism is measured with the angle determined by
the alveolar point, the external auditory meatus, and the nasal spine
(Fig. 13, /F′ O K/).
[Illustration: /Fig./ 14.--Jenny, Australian woman of Queensland.
Height, 1 m. 56; cephalic index, 71.2; nasal index, 119.
(_Photo. Prince Roland Bonaparte._)]
Among numerous other measurements which give indications for certain
characters we must cite: the minimum frontal diameter (Fig. 12, /S
J/); the interorbital line; the length and the breadth of the palate,
the relation of which constitutes the _palatal index_, etc. Among the
measurements of the curves it is necessary to note the horizontal
circumference of the head, the antero-posterior curve with its frontal,
parietal, and occipital portions, etc. Besides the facial angles, a
great number of others are taken; the more important are the sphenoidal
angle and the different occipital angles (of Daubenton, Broca, etc.),
which give the inclination of the occipital foramen in relation to a
horizontal plane. The measurements of these angles furnish valuable
indications on the characters called _seriary_, to which we have
recourse in order to compare man with animals which bear the closest
resemblance to him.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 15.--Same subject as Fig. 14, seen in profile.
Example of nose concave and flattened, of prognathism, and of prominent
superciliary arches.
(_Photo. Prince Roland Bonaparte._)]
But all these measurements do not suffice to exhaust the data of the
morphology of the skull. There still remain a host of _descriptive_
characters: the general form of the skull, pentagonal, oval,
elliptical, etc.; the contour of the face more or less angular or
rounded, its _canine fossa_ more or less deep, its zygomatic arches,
and its molar bones more or less projecting, etc. Certain anomalies
in the sutures of the bones, as for example the persistence of the
medio-frontal suture, the dispositions of the _pterion_ (point of union
of the sutures between the frontal, the temporal, the sphenoid, and
the parietal bones), are only important as seriary characters, but
there are others which possess some value in the differentiation of
races. The _Wormian bones_, or points of ossification inserted between
the bones of the skull, are of the number. One of these bones found
between the parietal bones and the occipital, has even received the
name of the _Inca bone_ (Fig. 23, /A/), on account of its very frequent
occurrence among Peruvian crania (deformed or not). In fact, it is met
with in an imperfect state 20 times in 100 and perfect 5.4 times in
100 among Peruvians, while in Negro crania it is found only 6 times
in 100 imperfect, and 1.5 perfect; among Europeans it is still more
rarely imperfect, and is hardly ever met with perfect (Anuchin). This
peculiarity seems to be a special character of the American race,
seeing that among the crania of the Indians of the New World (outside
Peruvians) the anomaly in question is found 10 times in 100 imperfect
and 1.3 times perfect. Among the Indians of Rio Salado, an affluent of
the Gila in Arizona, the frequency of this anomaly is still greater
than among Peruvians (5.7 perfect cases against 5.4 in Peru).[64] In
the same way, the presence of a suture which divides into two, more or
less imperfectly, the malar bone (Fig. 23, /B/) appears to be a special
character of Ainu and Japanese crania; Hilgendorf has even proposed to
call the lower portion of the malar bone thus formed _os japonicum_
(Fig. 23, /B/, _a_). While the suture is only met with 11 or 12 times
in 100 in Mongolian races, and 9 times in 100 in European races
according to Ten Kate,[65] it is found from 25 to 40 times in 100 among
Japanese according to Doenitz.
It is well understood that in the description of crania the alterations
of form produced by all kinds of causes are taken into account. (Such,
for example, is the considerable asymmetry or _plagiocephaly_ due
to a physiological cause, as the hypertrophy of the capacity of the
skull, or its atrophy in the pathological cases of _hydrocephaly_ or
_microcephaly_, and so many other ethnic deformations which will come
up for treatment in Chapter V., etc.)
_The head of the living subject_ furnishes more numerous characters
than the skull, especially if the face be considered with the play of
feature. Sometimes an examination of the face suffices to determine the
race of the subject.
The measurements of the head are about fifty in number, but they are
not all of equal importance. Very few of them, indeed, are really
useful.
The chief of the _angular measurements_ is the facial angle; great
importance was formerly attached to it when prognathism, or the degree
of projection of the maxillary region, was considered as a character
of inferiority. In spite of the numerous instruments invented (double
square, Harmand’s instrument, Jacquard’s goniometer, etc.), great
precision in these measurements is not attainable. The only angle which
can be taken with sufficient exactitude, thanks to the facial medium
goniometer of Broca, is Cuvier’s angle, formed by a line running either
from the glabella or the point between the eyebrows to the interval
between the incisor teeth, and by another line starting from the
external auditory meatus towards this interval. This angle enables us
to estimate the _total prognathism_ and the _alveolar prognathism_,
but the variations which it presents are too slight (3 to 4 degrees),
taking race with race, to constitute a distinctive character.
Prognathism of the lips, pushed forward to form the prominence of the
“muzzle,” which gives so characteristic an expression to the profile
of certain Negroes or Australians (Fig. 15), is not expressed by this
measurement, and ordinarily cannot be measured in any way.
Among the _measurements of the curve of the head_ the principal
are those of the _horizontal circumference_ with its _anterior
and posterior portions_, the limits of which are found at the
supra-auricular point, that is to say, in the depression which is
found immediately in front of the spot where the helix of the pinna
of the ear is inserted. The value of this measurement has also been
exaggerated, it being said that men of well-developed minds have the
circumference greater than men without intellectual culture. The
comparative observations of Broca made on house-surgeons and attendants
of hospitals seem to bear out the assertion; but they have not been
confirmed, and stature appears to have a decided relation with the size
of the head.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 16.--Japanese officer (old style), born at Tokio.
Example of elongated face.
(_Phot. Coll. Mus. Nat. Hist., Paris._)]
The measurements in a straight line are more numerous and more
important than those of angles and curves. Those which give the
antero-posterior diameter or maximum length of the head (from the
glabella to the most prominent point of the occiput, as on the cranium)
and the transverse maximum diameter, are the first to note. We have
already seen (p. 57) that their centesimal relation constitutes what
is called the _cephalic index_. Let us note afterwards the _total
height of the head_ (projection on a vertical plane), the _maximum
breadth of the face_ (between the zygomatic arches) and the different
“lengths” of the face, the relation of which to the breadth constitutes
the _facial index_. The latter is far from expressing the form of
the face as well as does the cephalic index the form of the head,
on account of its irregularity, and the want of agreement between
anthropologists with regard to the “facial lengths.” Nevertheless
we distinguish according to these measurements elongated faces or
_leptoprosopic_ (Fig. 16), short faces or _chamæprosopic_ (Fig. 17),
and medium faces, _meso-_ or _ortho-prosopic_ (Fig. 14).
[Illustration: /Fig./ 17.--Two men, Nagas of Manipur. Examples of large
faces with prominent cheek-bones.
(_Phot. Miss Godden._)]
Other measurements taken are the _frontal minimum diameter_ or minimum
breadth of the forehead (between the temporal ridges of the frontal
bone, which makes a projection under the skin); the _distance between
the inner angles_ or _canthus_ of the eyes is a good measurement,
especially if it be compared with the _breadth of the nose_, taken by
just touching with the points of the callipers the alæ of the nose.
Referred to the length of the nose (between the root of the nose and
the point of insertion of the septum) reduced to 100 it gives the
_nasal index_, one of the important characters in the classification of
races. Among several other measurements may be mentioned the _breadth
of the mouth_ between the commissure of the lips, the subject being
in repose; the _length and the breadth of the ears_, etc. All these
measurements are taken either with callipers or with sliding compasses,
similar to those used by shoemakers or engineers, or with special
instruments.[66]
Measurements taken on the living subject can never be as accurate as
those obtained on the cranium; but, on the other hand, they may be
much more numerous, and the greater number of observations compensates
largely for individual errors due to difficulties of the mode of
operation. Further, when measuring heads of living subjects, there is
the advantage of knowing sex, approximate age, and exact origin, while
in the case of one-half the crania examined, one or more of these
particulars may be wanting. All these conditions sufficiently explain
why, in these latter days, the attention of anthropologists is directed
towards measurements of living subjects, among which those of the head
occupy the foremost place.
Do the measurements of the head of the living subject correspond to the
measurements of the cranium? Various researches made with the object of
elucidating this question leave it still unsettled. It was believed at
first, for instance, that the _bregma_, or point of junction between
the coronal and the sagittal sutures in the cranium (Fig. 11, O),
corresponded in the head with the most prominent point of the line
passing from the supra-auricular point to another perpendicularly to
the horizontal plane; but the very careful researches of Broca and
Ferré have shown that this point is always in front of the bregma
by a quantity which varies according to sex and individual. The
correspondence of the _tourbillon_ of the hair with the _lambda_, or
point of junction on the cranium of the sagittal and occipital sutures
(Fig. 11, /F/), has not either been clearly demonstrated. The
principal measurement, the _cephalic index_, does not appear always to
correspond on the cranium and on the head of the living subject. _A
priori_, the living head should have the index a little higher than
the cranium, the muscles of the temporal region being thicker than
those of the supra-occipital and frontal region. However, experiments
made in connection with this subject are contradictory. According to
Broca, two units must be subtracted from the index taken on the living
subject in order to obtain the index on the cranium; this is also the
opinion of Stieda and Houzé and a great number of anthropologists,
while Mantegazza and Weisbach advocate the reduction of the index by
three units; and Virchow and Topinard do not admit any. In the face of
these divergent opinions, it is best to give the indices on the cranium
and the living subject separately as they are, and indicate the rate of
reduction or augmentation.
However, in a general way, one may admit, and I admit in this book,
the difference of two units between the indices of the cranium and the
living subject. In this way the two may be compared by adding these
two units to the index of crania and removing them from the index of
the living subject. I have given (p. 57) the divisions of the cephalic
index of the cranium; those of the living subject are the same with the
addition of two units.
We may now proceed to examine a little more closely the principal
measurements and the indices on the living subject by beginning
precisely with the _cephalic index_, which I believe to be, in spite
of the recent criticisms of Sergi[67] and Ehrenreich,[68] one of the
good characteristics of race, enabling us to make some secondary
partitions in the principal partitions of the genus _Homo_, based,
as we shall see afterwards (Chapter VIII.), on the colour of the skin
and the nature of the hair. Assuredly this index cannot express by
itself alone the true form of the head or the cranium, but it supplies
very clearly a first indication which gives a much better idea than
detailed description, useful, to be sure, but rendering the study
almost impossible when it is a question of comparing with one another a
great number of different types. On the other hand, this index has such
a fixity within the limits of any given race, that it is difficult to
conceive how it could be dispensed with. The figures given by different
authors when they rest on a sufficient number of subjects agree so
much among themselves as to the cephalic index, that it is impossible
to deny its fixity. The recent researches of Gonner[69] on one hundred
children of Basel, far from weakening the assertion, as it would
appear, speak in its favour; made on only the new-born or children one
month old, they confirm what was already known, that the cephalic index
varies with age, and by no means contradict its fixity. Ordinarily,
at birth children appear to be more dolichocephalic than the adults
of their race, but from the first month the head grows faster in
breadth than in length; thus at the end of the first month, according
to Gonner, the head is broadened in 52 children in 100, and remains
stationary in 9 per 100. My own researches lead me to believe that the
heads of children increase at first in breadth, to arrive afterwards
gradually at a definite form, which is fixed about the age of ten,
twelve, or fifteen years, according to race.
If instead of comparing, as Gonner has done, children of one month
old with their parents, he had taken children from ten years upwards,
he would have arrived at the same results as Spalikowski, who on
forty-eight infants at Rouen found forty-one of which the cranial form
corresponded with their parents. The researches of O. Ammon, Johansson
and Westermarck, Miss Fawcett and Pearson, as well as my own (yet
unpublished), lead to the same result.[70]
The differences of the cephalic index according to sex are
insignificant. According to my personal researches, this difference
hardly exceeds on the average 0.7 in the living subject and 1.5 in
the cranium; and even this latter figure is exaggerated. It may, in a
general way, be admitted that the difference between the cephalic index
of men and women hardly exceeds one unit--that is to say, the degree
of personal error in the observation. This difference is, in any case,
less than the discrepancies between the different series of a single
and homogeneous race.
In the table of the cephalic index which appears at the end of this
volume (Appendix II.), however, I have given only the figures relating
to men. A few series comprising individuals of both sexes appear
there as exceptional cases. I have taken care to mark these with a
letter S. In this table will be found side by side with indices taken
on the living subjects some taken on crania, but no series contains
measurements of crania and heads intermingled. The series of ten to
twenty subjects or crania in the table appear there exceptionally, for
the only series furnishing figures really exact are those comprising
more than twenty individuals.
An inspection of the table shows us that there is a certain regularity
in the distribution of the different cranial forms on the surface of
the earth.
Dolichocephaly is almost exclusively located in Melanesia, in
Australia, in India, and in Africa. Sub-dolichocephaly, diffused in the
two extreme regions, North and South, of Europe, forms in Asia a zone
round India (Indo-China, Anterior Asia, China, Japan, etc.), but is
met with only sporadically in other parts of the world, especially in
America. Mesocephaly is frequent in Europe in the regions bordering
on the sub-dolichocephalic countries, as well as in different parts of
Asia and America. Sub-brachycephaly, much diffused among the Mongolians
of Asia and the populations of Eastern Europe, is very rare elsewhere.
Lastly, brachycephalic and hyper-brachycephalic heads are almost
exclusively limited to Western and Central Europe, to some populations
of Asia, Turco-Mongols, Irano-Semites, and Thaï-Malays.
Has the form of the head, so far as the cephalic index can express
it, an influence on the volume of the brain, and consequently on
its weight, and even perhaps on the mentality? This question is
subordinate to another, namely: To what point is the weight of the
brain the expression of the psychical value of this organ? We shall
see further, on p. 101, that the weight can only be considered as a
very rough approximation for the solution of psychological questions.
But even in recognising in the weight of the brain the exaggerated
importance that too long has been attributed to it, it may be said that
it is not in relation with the conformation of the skull. The only
investigation made into this matter--that of Calori--restricted to the
figures of adults (from 20 to 60 years) by Topinard,[71] shows us that
among Italian men the brachycephalic have on an average 27 grammes of
brain more than the dolichocephalic, while among Italian women it is
the dolichocephalic who have the better of the brachycephalic by 21
grammes. The differences in the two shapes being so very trifling, one
may consider one’s self equally intelligent whether dolichocephalic or
brachycephalic.
Next to the form of the head, that of the face is of great importance
in recognising races. It may be more or less long or broad, oval (Fig.
109), ellipsoidal (Fig. 136), or round (Figs. 119, 164, and 169), with
soft contours or very angular, and then it may be found as an elongated
rectangle (Fig. 121) or a square (Fig. 124); it may approximate also to
the pentagonal form (Fig. 17), etc.
The _forehead_ may be broad or narrow, low or high, retreating
(oblique, Fig. 21) or straight (Figs. 24 and 90), it may present a
medium protuberance, as for instance, among many Negro tribes (Fig.
140), etc. The _superciliary arches_ may be absent (Mongolian races) or
very prominent, overhanging the eyes (Australians, Fig. 15; Veddahs,
Fig. 5).
The _cheek-bones_ may be little developed (Europeans) or very prominent
(Mongolians, Figs. 17 and 20; Bushmen, Fig. 24, etc.), but cheek-bones
projecting forward must be distinguished from those developed
laterally. The _chin_ may be pointed, rounded, square, projecting,
retreating (Fig. 15), but these variations are of little importance,
and may be found in conjunction with the most diverse forms of the
face, while giving to it its own character. The posterior angles of
the lower jaw may be more or less wide, and thus help to produce the
angular contour of the face; quadrangular in the case of the square
chin (Fig. 121), or with pentagonal contour in the case of the pointed
chin (Fig. 118).
The _eyes_ furnish also some differences of form. We distinguish the
ordinary eye, as in our countries, and the _oblique_ or _narrowed
Mongolian eye_. The latter presented in its most perfect form is
characterised as follows. It is placed obliquely, so that its external
angle is higher than its inner angle (Fig. 121). This disposition is
due to the too high attachment of the external palpebral ligament to
the skull, as Regalia has shown.[72] Its palpebral aperture is much
narrower than in the ordinary eye, and instead of having the form of
an almond, it has rather that of a scalene triangle (Figs. 18 and 118)
or of a little fish whose head corresponds to the inner angle (Fig.
119). But these peculiarities are not the most important, and may be
met with, though rarely, in ordinary eyes. The essential characters
of the Mongolian eye consist, as Metchnikof[73] has shown, in a
puffiness of the upper eyelid, which turns down at the inner angle of
the narrowed eye, and, instead of being free, as in the ordinary eye,
is folded towards the eyeball, forming a fixed fold in front of the
movable ciliary edge; this last becomes invisible and the eyelashes
are scarcely seen. Moreover, towards the inner angle of the eye, the
eyelid forms a fold covering more or less the caruncula, and sometimes
extending more or less far below (Fig. 18). These peculiarities,
which can be met with quite often among the children of all races as
a transitory characteristic, may be explained up to a certain point
by the very small development of the pilous system in general in
people among whom they persist. For among Europeans, for instance, the
inversion of the eyelid (_entropion_) may become a cause of disease
(_trichiasis_) precisely on account of the growth of the eyelashes.[74]
[Illustration: /Fig./ 18.--Eye of a young Kalmuk girl of Astrakhan.
Example of Mongoloid eye
(_from nature_).]
Sometimes this puffiness only extends to the outer part of the
eyelid; we have thus a variety of the Mongolian eye, with a palpebral
triangular opening, very frequent among the eastern Finns (Fig. 106)
and the Turco-Tatar populations.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 19.--Welsh type of Montgomeryshire. Eyes and hair
dark.
(_Photo. and particulars, Beddoe._)]
The _nose_, by the variety and the fixity of its forms, presents one
of the best characters for distinguishing races. We can express by
means of the nasal index of Broca its width (measured by just touching
the alæ of the nose) in relation to its length (from the root to the
sub-nasal spine) supposed = 100. This index varies in the proportion
of one to three (from 40 to 120), according to race. Among the
platyrhinians, the breadth of the nose exceeds 85 (Fig. 14); among the
leptorhinians, this breadth is less than 70 (Fig. 16); lastly, among
the mesorhinians, it oscillates between 70 and 85, according to the
nomenclature of R. Collignon.[75] I give in Appendix III. a table of
the nasal indices of the principal populations; I have only introduced
into it series of more than ten individuals, whose measurements have
been taken according to the Broca-Collignon method, explained above.[76]
Besides the general form of the nose given by the nasal index, there
remain a host of descriptive characters which may be observed in
this organ. It may be more or less flattened (examples: Negroes,
Melanesians, Mongolians), or more or less prominent (Europeans,
Jews, Arabs). Its profile may be: (1) straight and sometimes sinuous
(examples: Turco-Tatars, Europeans, Fig. 19); (2) concave (certain
Finns, Bushmen, Lapps, Australians, Fig. 15); (3) convex and sometimes
arched (American Indians, Semites, Fig. 21). Each of these forms may
be in combination with a fine, thick, or medium tip, and with a plane
of the nostrils directed upwards, downwards, or horizontally. A.
Bertillon[77] admits at least fifteen varieties of the forms of the
nose. In the majority of cases concave noses have the extremity thick,
and the plane of the nostrils directed upward (Figs. 9, 14, and 15);
convex noses, on the contrary, have most frequently the tip fine,
and the plane of the nostrils directed downward (Figs. 21, 102, 103,
and 134). But there are also convex noses with very thick tips, for
instance, among the Jews and the Iranians of the Assyroid type (Fig.
22), or again, among the Papuans and the Melanesians (Fig. 53), as well
as concave noses with fine tips, for instance, among certain European
races (Figs. 97, 104, and 105). Broad noses are most frequently
flattened (Figs. 14, 15, and 24), but the flattening may also extend
to narrow noses, as for example among the Mongols (Fig. 20). The
sunken, very depressed root of the nose is almost always associated
with a considerable prominence on the supraciliary arches: examples,
Australians, Fuegians, etc. (Figs. 14, 15, and 48).
[Illustration: /Fig./ 20.--Kalmuk of Astrakhan. Example of convex and
flattened nose.
(_Phot. S. Sommier._)]
In a general way, as may be seen from the table, the leptorhinians,
who have for the most part the convex and straight noses, with fine,
straight, or turned-down tips, are met with almost exclusively
among Europeans, Eurasians, Armenians, Caucasians, and Eurafricans
(Arabo-Berbers), as well as among the inhabitants of anterior Asia.
The mesorhinians, among whom the form of the profile of the nose
varies much, include different populations of India, some American,
Turco-Tatar, and Mongol peoples. And lastly, the platyrhinians, having
most frequently the profile convex and the tip turned up, comprise the
whole of the black populations of Africa, Oceania, and India.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 21.--Jew of Algiers. Example of convex and
prominent nose.
(_Phot. Coll. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris._)]
At birth and during early infancy the nose is most frequently concave,
with the tip turned up (Fig. 130); it only becomes straight or convex
in the adult; in old age it has a tendency to become convex with the
tip turned down (Bertillon, Hoyer). In the dead body it always takes
the arched form. According to Broca and Houzé, the nasal index has a
tendency to get lower--that is to say, the nose becomes relatively
thinner as the individual advances in age; according to Hoyer,[78] the
contrary takes place.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 22.--Persian Hadjemi. Example of Assyroid nose.
(_Author’s Phot. Coll._)]
The ears present few characteristic traits for distinguishing
races,[79] but the same cannot be said of the lips. They are thin in
the so-called white races and among Mongols; very thick and protruding
among the Negroes; somewhat thick among Malays, Melanesians, etc. Their
form contributes much towards hiding or accentuating dental or alveolar
prognathism.
_Skeleton of the Trunk and Limbs._--The parts of the skeleton other
than the head furnish but few materials for characterising races. We
have already seen (p. 14) that the differences of curvature in the
_vertebral column_ according to race may be explained by the mode of
life. As to the other peculiarities of the spine,--spinous processes
split in the cervical vertebræ,[80] narrow sacrum, etc.,--all that can
be said about them is that they are more frequent among Negroes, and
perhaps among Melanesians, than among Whites.
The _pelvis_ has more importance on account of its function from
the obstetrical point of view, and of its influence on the general
form of the body. Unfortunately this part of the skeleton has only
been studied in very inadequate series among a dozen populations.
Subjoined is given:--1st, the table of _pelvic index_--that is to
say, the centesimal relation between the maximum breadth of the
pelvis (between the iliac crests) and its height (from the top of the
iliac crest to the lowest point of the ischion), taking for our unit
sometimes the first of these measurements following Turner, sometimes
the second following Broca; 2nd, the table of the index of the inlet
(_pelvic or brim index_ of English authors)--that is to say, the
relation of the antero-posterior diameter of this aperture (from the
middle of the promontory of the sacrum to the pubic symphysis) to its
maximum transverse diameter, which, let us suppose, = 100.[81] It
will be remarked that the tables, formed of series of five subjects
at least, are given in separate parts for men and for women, as the
sexual differences are very appreciable in the pelvis of all races.
In a general way the pelvis is broader and less high, its slope more
pronounced, in woman than in man. The iliac fossa are wider in the
former than in the latter; the _superior inlet_ or _brim_ is elliptical
or reniform in woman, in the form of a playing-card heart in man,
etc. But, as may be seen by our table, if these differences are very
appreciable in certain races, notably among Whites and Negroes, they
become less and less among Melanesians, among whom the pelves of the
two sexes approximate nearly to the masculine type.
Has the form of the pelvis, and especially that of the inlet, any
relation to the form of the head of the fœtus and of the child?
Exact data for solving this question are wanting. However, comparing
from our tables the index of the superior inlet and that of the
cephalic index, it may be observed that, in a general way, pelves with
a large aperture are met with in brachycephalic races, and pelves with
a narrow aperture in dolichocephalic races. But there are numerous
exceptions: I note at least four (English, Russian, Swedish mesocephal
and Malay women) in the meagre list of 12 series of women that, with
much difficulty, I have been able to draw up.
The form of the _shoulder-blade_ varies little with race. The _scapular
index_--that is to say, the centesimal relation between the breadth of
the shoulder-blade and its length (measured on the vertebral edge and
taken as the unit of comparison)--oscillates between 64.9 (Australians)
and 70.2 (Andamanese). In a list of 14 series of from 10 to 462
shoulder-blades that I have drawn up from the works of Broca, Livon,
Turner, Topinard, Garson, Martin, Hyades, Sarasin, Hamy, Koganei,
and my own measurements, the populations are arranged as follows:
index from 64.9 to 66.6, Australians, Europeans, Fuegians, Bushmen,
Ainus, Peruvians, Polynesians; indices from 67.2 to 70.2, Japanese,
Veddahs, Hindu-Sikhs, Malays, Negroes, Melanesians, Andamanese. This
classification suffices to show that the greater or less breadth of
the shoulder-blade has almost no value as a seriate character or as a
character of race. It is the same with the _sub-spinal index_, which it
has been proposed to add to the foregoing in order to judge of the form
of the shoulder-blade.[82]
------------------------------------------------------------
MEN.
-------+------------------------+------+--------------------
Number | | |
of | Ethnic Groups. |Index.| Observer.
Pelves.| | |
-------+------------------------+------+--------------------
1_a_.--INDEX OF HEIGHT (TURNER).[83]
-------+------------------------+------+--------------------
7 |Fuegians | 77 |Garson, Martin.
7 |Australians | 77 |Garson, Turn., Vern.
46 |Europeans | 79 |Verneau, Turner.
-------+------------------------+------+--------------------
1_b_.--PELVIC INDEX OR INDEX OF WIDTH-HEIGHT (BROCA).
-------+------------------------+------+--------------------
17 |Negroes in general | 121.3|Garson, Verneau.
11 |Melanesians | 122.7|Verneau.
46 |Europeans | 126.6|Garson, Verneau.
5 |Fuegians | 129.8|Hyades, Deniker.
| | |
-------+------------------------+------+--------------------
2.--INDEX OF THE SUPERIOR INLET.
-------+------------------------+------+--------------------
63 |Europeans} Princ. French| 80 |Verneau, Flower.
8 | } „ Italians| 82 |Marri.
17 |Fuegians | 85.1|Deniker, Hyades,
| | | Martin, Garson.
12 |New Caledonians | 91 |Verneau.
38 |Negroes | 92.3|Turner, Henning,
| | | Verneau, Vrolik.
24 |Australians | 96.6|Flower, Turner,
| | | Vern., Ecker, etc.
14 |Andamanese | 98.7|Turner, Fritsch.
5 |Bushmen | 99.5|Gar., Turn., Flow.
| | |
| | |
-------+------------------------+------+--------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
WOMEN.
-------+------------------------+------+---------------------
Number | | |
of | Ethnic Groups. |Index.| Observer.
Pelves.| | |
-------+------------------------+------+---------------------
1_a_.--INDEX OF HEIGHT (TURNER).
-------+------------------------+------+---------------------
28 |Europeans | 74.3|Garson, Verneau.
7 |Australians | 76.6|Gars., Turn., Vern.
8 |Andamanese | 76 |Gars., Turn.
-------+------------------------+------+---------------------
1_b_.--PELVIC INDEX OR INDEX OF WIDTH-HEIGHT (BROCA).
-------+------------------------+------+---------------------
13 |Andamanese | 125.5|Garson.
10 |Melanesians | 129 |Garson, Verneau.
5 |Australians | 130.4|Garson, Verneau.
10 |Negresses | 134.2|Garson, Verneau.
28 |Europeans | 134.9|Garson, Verneau.
-------+------------------------+------+---------------------
2.--INDEX OF THE SUPERIOR INLET.
-------+------------------------+------+---------------------
33 |Europeans} Princ. Engl. | 77.6|Garson.
49 | } „ French | 79 |Verneau.
14 |Japanese | 82.8|Dönitz, Werner.
5 |Hawaiians | 83 |Turner.
13 |Fuegians | 83 |Deniker, Hyades,
| | | Sergi, Martin.
50 |Russians | 84.8|Filatof.
9 |Italians | 86.7|Marri.
32 |Negresses | 88.4|Turner, Verneau.
8 |Australians | 88.5|Turn., Vern., Garson.
8 |Bushmen | 91.6|Muller, Hux., Ver., Fl.
16 |Andamanese | 91.7|Henning.
20 |Malays | 94.8|Garson, Flow., Turn.
-------+------------------------+------+---------------------
As to the skeleton of the limbs, here is a summary of what can be said
about it from the point of view which specially concerns us now. In the
_thoracic limb_ the _humerus_ presents an interesting peculiarity: the
perforations of the _olecranon cavity_ (which receives the extremity of
the ulna) are very frequent in prehistoric bones in Europe (10 to 27
times in 100), as well as in America (31 times).[84]
This perforation is met with more often among men than women, perhaps
because it is more especially connected with the extent and frequent
repetition of the movements of flexion and extension. Here is its
growing frequency in the races from a list which I have drawn up with
series varying from 20 to 249 humeri: white population of the United
States (3.8 times in a hundred), French, Fuegians, Ainus, Basques,
Melanesians, Japanese, Negroes, Polynesians, Mongolians, and American
Indians (36.2 times in a hundred). The _torsion of the humerus_--that
is to say, the degree of rotation of the lower part of this bone in
relation to its upper part, is a character of a certain seriate value;
but it is of no use in the differentiation of races. Besides, the
degree of torsion varies too much in the same race: it is greater in
woman than in man, in short than in long humeri (Manouvrier, Martin,
etc.). This torsion is measured by the _angle of torsion_, which is
taken either according to Broca’s method or Gegenbaur’s. This is
how the different peoples are arranged according to the decreasing
figures of this angle (series of 10 humeri): according to Broca’s
system:--Melanesians (angle of 141°), Guanches, Arabs or at least
Kabyles, Polynesians, Negroes, Peruvians, Californians, Europeans,
French (164°); according to Gegenbaur’s system:--Ainus (149.5°),
Fuegians, Veddahs, Japanese, Swiss, Germans (168°). Until further
discoveries are made, a single fact becomes prominent from the
examination of this character--that is, that the torsion appears to be
greater in white races than in black and yellow. In the ulna Collignon
has noted a special incurvation in certain prehistoric bones.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 23.--A, Skull with Inca Bone, _b_; B, Malar Bone
divided in two (_a_, _os Japonicum_); C, superior part of femur with
third trochanter (3), and the hypo-trochanteric fossa (_x_); 1 and 2,
normal trochanters.]
In the _femur_ one peculiarity has especially attracted the attention
of anthropologists in recent times; it is the more or less frequent
presence of the _third trochanter_ (Fig. 23, C 3), or tuberosity
situated between the great (_ibid._, 1) and the lesser (_ibid._, 2)
trochanter on the offshoot from the _linea aspera_ which furnishes a
point of attachment to the lower part of the _gluteus maximus_. This
projection, pointed out and studied for the first time by Houzé,[85]
appears in infancy as a special centre of ossification analogous
to those of the other diaphyses (Török, Deniker, Dixon), and so
does not seem to depend on the greater or less development of the
_gluteus maximus_ (Bertaux).[86] The third trochanter is almost always
accompanied by a _hypotrochanteric fossa_ (Fig. 23, C).
Here is the frequency with which the third trochanter occurs according
to a list which I have compiled:--
-------+-----------------------------+-----------+----------------
| |Frequency |
Number | |per 100 |
of | Populations. |of the 3rd | Observers.
Femurs.| |trochanter.|
-------+-----------------------------+-----------+----------------
42 |Belgians and French of the | |
| Reindeer Period | 13 | Houzé
28 |Negroes | 21 | Houzé, Costa
68 |Ainus | 26.5 |}Koganei
73 |Japanese | 28.8 |}
67 |Inhabitants of Brussels | 30.2 | Houzé
102 |Italians | 30.4 | Costa
54 |Hungarians | 36.1 | Török
110 |Belgians and French of the | |
| Polished Stone Period | 38 | Houzé
76 |Fuegians | 64.3 | Hyad., Denik.,
| | | Martin, Costa
-------+-----------------------------+-----------+----------------
Two points will be observed in this table, the rarity of the third
trochanter among Negroes, and its excessive frequency among the
Fuegians. The women of the latter have also the hypochanteric fossa 80
times in a 100 (out of 76 femurs examined); it almost forms then, like
the third trochanter, a character of race.
In the _tibia_ attention has been called to _platycnemia_--that is to
say, the transversal flattening in the upper third of the diaphysis
of the bone, so that its posterior side becomes transformed into a
border. It has been supposed that this form is a reversion towards
the simian type, but Manouvrier[87] has shown that platycnemia never
attains in the anthropoid apes the degree which it presents in the
human race, where it is due especially to the development of the
_tibialis posticus_ muscle which plays a great part in the maintenance
of the upright position, and in the movements of walking and running.
The degree of platycnemia may thus vary according to the more or less
sedentary or wandering habits of the different populations.
_The retroversion of the head of the tibia_--that is to say, the slope
of the articular surface of it behind--pointed out and described for
the first time by Collignon in prehistoric tibias, is also not a simian
character. According to Manouvrier,[88] it is often met with among
Parisians in a degree superior to that exhibited by anthropoid apes.
This retroversion, generally associated with platycnemia, is connected
with the half-bending attitude of the lower limb in the manner of
walking which is called the _bending gait_, common among peasants, and
especially mountaineers. The retroversion is more marked in the tibia
of the new-born child than in that of the adult, and this appears
to have a connection with the permanent bending of the knee during
intra-uterine life.
_The length of the bones of the pelvic and thoracic limbs_ varies
according to race, but it is difficult to establish the degree of these
variations, owing to the small number of observations made. Besides,
we can more profitably substitute for measurements of limbs on the
skeleton those of the living subject; in the latter case we can at
least relate all the measurements to the true height of the subject,
whilst the height is never exactly known from the skeleton.
However, the measurements of the long bones have their importance, for
they permit us to _reconstitute_ approximately, as we have already seen
(p. 33), _the height_ of subjects of which we have only the bones, as
is the case of all populations that have preceded us.
It is for this reason that I give the following figures derived
from nine series of from five to seventy-two skeletons. The length
of the humerus represents from 19.5 (Polynesians) to 20.7 per cent.
(Europeans) of the height of the skeleton; that of the radius from
14.3 (Europeans) to 15.7 (Negroes); that of the femur from 26.9 (South
Americans) to 27.9 (New Caledonians); lastly, the length of the tibia
represents from 21.5 (Esthonians) to 23.8 per cent. (New Caledonians)
of the height of the skeleton. Thus the differences are insignificant,
and the variations between race and race do not extend beyond the
limits of a unit and a half for each of the bones.
The length of the radius in relation to the humerus (= 100) exhibits
variations a little more appreciable. It is 72.5 among Europeans, 76
among New Caledonians, 79 among Negroes, 79.7 among Veddahs, 80.6
among Fuegians, 81.7 among Andamanese. Let us note that the fore-arm,
relatively to the arm, is much longer in the fœtus in the first
stages of development and in early infancy than in the adult;[89] it is
shortened in proportion to the height as the fœtus and the infant
grow.
_Proportions of the Body in the Living Subject._--In spite of the
quantity of material accumulated, we have not been able up to the
present to make any use of the differences which these proportions
exhibit according to race. The reason is that these differences are
very trifling. In order to understand this proposition better I will
give by way of illustration the proportions which we may consider as
nearly normal in a European of average stature (1 m. 65, or 5 ft. 5
ins.). Topinard established thus the principal proportions of the
European,[90] assuming the height = 100.
Head 13
Trunk and neck 35
(32.7 without neck.)
Thoracic limb 45
Arm 19.5
Forearm 14
Hand 11.5
Abdominal limb 47.5
(from the ischiatic plane to the ground.)
Foot 15
Span of arms (middle finger of one hand to
middle finger of the other.) 104.4
The proportions in the different populations of the earth oscillate
round these figures without diverging from them more than three units,
or five at most. Thus, for example, the proportions of the height of
the head vary between 11.4 and 15, according to Rojdestvensky;[91] the
proportions of the trunk without the neck from 32.6 to 32.8, according
to Topinard, etc.
The length of the thoracic limb scarcely varies more than between 42.6
and 47.6, according to the lists of sixteen and twenty-seven series
published by Ivanovsky and Topinard,[92] and according to a third list
of twenty-four series that I have drawn up. We can count on the fingers
the populations in which the proportion for the hand exceeds the figure
11 with its decimals or sinks below it; it is the same in regard to the
foot, of which the figure 15 with its decimals is rarely exceeded or is
not reached.[93] The variations of length for the abdominal limb do not
extend further than from 45.1 to 49.2 (Topinard), etc.
The thoracic perimeter exceeds half the height in all adult populations
of the world, except perhaps some groups of Georgian Svanes and Jews,
or other populations which happen to be in bad hygienic conditions.
Thus proportions of the limbs are not good characters of race. Besides,
certain dimensions (length of limbs, of the head) are always dependent
on height. Thus individuals and races of high stature have the face
and abdominal limb a little more elongated than individuals and races
of short stature. On the other hand, individuals and races of short
stature have in general the head larger, the trunk shorter, and the
thoracic perimeter relatively more considerable than individuals and
races of high stature, but the differences are very trifling as a
general rule.
_Trunk and Limbs of the Living._--To complete our study on the
living subject, let us again note some peculiarities. The _neck_
is ordinarily long and thin among Negroes, Ethiopians (Figs. 9 and
138), and on the contrary short among the majority of the American
Indians (Figs. 163 and 169); the shoulders are very broad among the
women of the latter (Fig. 165), and very narrow among the Chechen
and Lesghi women. Usually the long neck is associated with a form of
trunk like an inverted pyramid and a high stature, while the short
neck surmounts a cylindrical trunk and is associated with a low
stature. _Ensellure_--that is to say, the strongly marked curve of the
dorso-lumbo-sacral region--is especially marked among Spanish women
whose lumbar incurvation is such, and the movements of the lumbar
vertebræ so extensive, that they are able to throw themselves backwards
so as even to touch the ground (Duchenne of Boulogne). Ensellure is
also more marked among Negroes than among Whites. It must be noted that
it may also be merely a consequence of abdominal obesity, pregnancy, or
_steatopygia_.
By the last-mentioned term is designated excessive projection of
the buttocks due to the accumulation of subcutaneous fat (Fig. 24);
these are physiological fatty tumours proceeding from the hypertrophy
of the adipose tissue more or less abundant in these regions among
all races, and analogous to the fatty tumours of the cheeks of the
orang-utan, which are simply Bichat’s fatty balls existing among men
and among the anthropoids,[94] only excessively developed. As in those
tumours, the fat of the steatopygous masses does not even disappear
after disease which has emaciated the rest of the body. Steatopygia
is characteristic of the Bushman race; it is only met with in all its
characters (alteration of form on the lateral and anterior sides of the
thighs; persistence even in emaciation, etc.) among populations into
the composition of which enters the Bushman element: Hottentots (Fig.
24), Nama, etc. The cases of steatopygia observed among other Wolof or
Somali women, for example, are only the exaggeration of adipose deposit
among the muscular fibres, as with Europeans, not of the subcutaneous
adipose layer. Steatopygia is especially marked in the Bushman woman,
in whom it commences to develop only from the age of puberty; but it
exists also, though in a less degree, in the male of that race (Fig.
143).
[Illustration: /Fig./ 24.--Hottentot woman of Griqualand (Cape
Colony); 35 years; height, 4 ft. 8 ins.; cephalic index, 76.4. Example
of steatopygia. (_Photo. Prince Roland Bonaparte._)]
We cannot enlarge on other exterior characters: on the form of the
trunk and of the limbs; on the leg with poorly developed calf, and the
foot with the prominent heel which is observed among certain Negroes
(but not among all); on the more or less diverging big toe which is
remarked among the majority of the peoples of India, Indo-China, and
the insular world dependent on Asia, from Sumatra to Japan, etc.
Two words, however, on the subject of the pretended existence of
races of _men with tails_. We must relegate to the domain of fable
the cases of this kind which are announced from time to time in
publications for the popularisation of science so called. The costumes
of certain populations have given rise to the fable of men with tails
(see frontispiece). Isolated cases of men having as an anomaly a
caudal excrescence more or less long, free, or united to the trunk,
are known to science, and numbers have been described, but no single
serious description has ever been given of populations with tails.[95]
Quite recently, again, Lartschneider has demonstrated that the
ilio-coccygian and pubio-coccygian muscles in mammifera have lost in
man their character of symmetrical and paired skeleton muscles, and
are driven back towards the interior of the pelvis as single unpaired
muscle plates (fibres of the _levator ani_). Primitive man has never
had a caudal appendage since he acquired the biped attitude; the
disappearance of the tail is even one of the indispensable conditions
of that attitude.[96]
The different internal or external organs of man afford also some
special characters, though not very numerous, for differentiating race.
The _muscular system_, little known outside white races, has, up to
the present, not given any important indication on this point. At the
very outside, we can say, thanks to the works of Chudzinsky, Le Double,
Macalister, Popovsky, Testut, Turner, etc., and the Committee of the
Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, that certain muscular
anomalies are more frequent in the Negro than in the White, and that
the muscles of the face are less differentiated in the former than in
the latter.[97] In the splanchnic system some differences have also
been observed between the White and the Negro, notably the excessive
volume of the liver, the spleen, the suprarenal-capsules, and, in
general, the hypertrophy of all the organs of excretion in the latter
compared with the former. The venous system appears also to be more
developed in the Negro than in the White. Somewhat notable differences
must certainly be observable in the structure and general conformation
of the organs of the voice and of speech--tongue, larynx, lungs. But
our knowledge on this subject is still very imperfect. Attention has
been drawn to the feeble development of the anterior fibres of the
stylo-glossal muscle of the tongue, the greater development of the
Wrisberg cartilage of the larynx with the muscles stronger in the Negro
than in the White,[98] but nothing is known about the larynx of other
races.
There is nothing, even to the bony parts of the vocal apparatus, which
does not undergo ethnic variations. Thus the larger cornua of the
_hyoid bone_ are not attached to the body of it in 75 to 95 per cent.
of cases observed among the Indians of America, whilst the same anomaly
is met with in only 25 to 35 per cent. of cases among Europeans, and
only in 30 per cent. among Negroes, which probably harmonises with the
differences in the production of sounds in the language of each of
these peoples.[99]
The _genital organs_ also present some differences according to race,
but rather in the dimensions of the various parts than in their form.
The only peculiarity worth notice is the exaggerated development of the
labia minora among the Bushman women, known under the name of “apron.”
This peculiarity, which appears from infancy, is met with only among
the Bushman race and the people into whose composition enters the
Bushman element--Hottentots, Nama, Griqua, etc.[100]
The breasts of women may also present variations of form. Ploss[101]
classes them under four heads according to their height, which is
inferior, equal, or more or less superior to the diameter of their
base; we have thus mammæ like a bowl or the segment of a globe,
hemispherical, conical, and pyriform. These forms may be found in
combination with a more or less extended and prominent areola, and with
a nipple which may be discoidal, hemispherical, digitiform, etc. It
is especially among Negresses that we meet with conical and pyriform
mammæ, and digitiform nipples, while mammæ shaped like the segment of a
sphere predominate among Mongolian and European women of the fair race;
women of the south-east of Europe and hither Asia have for the most
part hemispherical breasts.
Among the internal organs, the _brain_, or better, the _encephalon_,
deserves a little more attention. I have already said with regard
to cranial capacity (p. 56) that appreciable differences have been
observed in the volume of the brain-case according to age, sex, and
race. This difference is in harmony with irregularity in the volume and
consequently in the weight of the brain. At birth, European boys have
334 grammes of brain on an average, girls 287 grammes. This quantity
increases rapidly up to 20 years of age, remains almost stationary
between 20 and 40 or 45, then begins to decrease, slowly at first,
until 60 years, then more rapidly.
Let me also add that the weight of the encephalon varies enormously
according to individuals. Topinard[102] in a series of 519 Europeans,
men of the lower and middle classes, found that variations in weight
extended from 1025 grammes to 1675 grammes. The average weight of
the brain among adult Europeans (20 to 60 years) has been fixed by
Topinard, from an examination of 11,000 specimens weighed, at 1361
grammes for man, 1290 grammes for woman. It has been asserted that
the other races have a lighter brain, but the fact has not been
established by a sufficient number of examples. In reality all that can
be put against the 11,000 brain-weighings mentioned above concerning
the cerebral weights of non-European races, amounts to nothing, or
almost nothing. The fullest series that Topinard[103] has succeeded in
making, that of Negroes, comprises only 190 brains; that of Annamese,
which comes immediately after, contains only 18 brains. And what
do the figures of these series teach us? The first series, dealing
with Negroes, gives a mean weight not much different from that of
Europeans--1316 grammes for adult males of from 20 to 60 years; and
the second, dealing with the Annamese, a mean weight of 1341 grammes,
almost identical with that of Europeans. For other populations we have
only the weight of isolated brains, or of series of three, four, or
at most eleven specimens, absolutely insufficient for any conclusions
whatever to be drawn, seeing that individual variations are as great
in exotic races as among Europeans, to judge by Negroes (1013 to 1587
grammes) and by Annamese (from 1145 to 1450 grammes). Even in the great
series of Europeans, surprises await us in comparing the figures.
Thus Peacock found an average of 1388 grammes for the English from a
series of 28 brains, whilst Boyd finds 1354 grammes from a series of
425 brains. The difference (34 grammes) is greater here than between
the brains of Annamese and Europeans, and hardly less than that which
we have just found between Negroes and Europeans (45 grammes). For the
French the figures are more in agreement. Broca found from the weights
of 167 brains an average of 1359 grammes, and Bischoff[104] from 50
brains an average of 1381 grammes; difference, 22 grammes.
Not having at our disposal sufficient data for the weight, let us see
if the cranial capacity could not supply them, for we know, since the
investigations of Manouvrier,[105] that we have just to multiply by
the co-efficient 0.87 the capacity of the cranial cavity to get with
reasonable exactitude the weight of the brain which it contained.
This is what we learn from the figures of cranial capacity brought
together by Topinard,[106] after the necessary corrections, and
reduction to cubic measurement by the system of Broca: among Europeans
the measurement is 1565 c.c. on an average for men, varying from 1530
c.c. (22 Dutch) to 1601 c.c. (43 Finns). We have in various series the
following succession of cranial capacities for the populations of the
other parts of the world: the greatest is contained in a series of 26
Eskimo (1583 c.c.), the least that of 36 Australians (1349 c.c.) and
of 11 Andamanese (1310 c.c.). Between these two extremes the other
populations would be thus arranged in a decreasing order of capacity:
36 Polynesians (1525 c.c.), 18 Javanese (1500 c.c.), 32 Mongols (1504
c.c.), 23 Melanesians (1460 c.c.), 74 Negroes (1441 c.c.), and 17
Dravidians of Southern India (1353 c.c.).
The difference between the highest and lowest of these figures is 255
c.c., a little greater than that which is shown between man and woman
in all races. On the other hand, Manouvrier[107] gives the following
weights, deduced from cranial capacities: 187 modern Parisians, 1357
grammes; 61 Basques, 1360 grammes; 31 Negroes, 1238 grammes; 23 New
Caledonians, 1270 grammes; 110 Polynesians, 1380 grammes; and 50
Bengalis, 1184 grammes; the difference of the two extremes is 196
grammes. Must we then see in these differences the influence of stature
and bulk of body, as appears unquestionable in the sexual difference?
We are tempted to believe it when we see that the mean weight of the
largest brain in Europe has been found among the Scotch (1417 grammes,
an average obtained by Reid and Peacock from 157 brains), whose
stature is the highest of the human family, and that the mean weight
of the Italians, whose average stature is rather small, is only 1308
grammes (from 244 cases weighed by Calori). The Polynesians and the
Caucasians,[108] peoples of high stature, also outweigh the Andamanese
and the Javanese, of very low stature. However, we see (from weights
and cranial capacity) that Negro populations of very high stature, also
Australians and New Caledonians of medium stature, have the cerebral
weight much smaller than the Eskimo and certain Asiatics of low
stature, like the Javanese.
There is here a double influence, that of stature and that of race.
We might have introduced a third element--the weight of the body,
but it represents too many different things, and may vary according
to the degree of stoutness of the individual, the dietary regimen,
etc. C. Voit found, when operating on two dogs of nearly equal bulk,
that the weight of the brain of the well-fed dog represented 1.1 per
cent. of the weight of its body, whilst the brain of the dog which had
fasted for twenty-two days represented 1.7 per cent. of the weight
of the body.[109] At all events, we cannot deny the influence of the
bulk of the active parts of the body on the volume of the brain.[110]
But then a new question arises. Is the increase of the volume of
the brain made at the cost of the white substance formed solely of
conducting-fibres, or of the grey substance formed principally of
cells with their prolongations (neurons), that is to say, of the
part which is exclusively affected by the psychic processes? This
question still waits its solution. It is not the gross weight of the
brain, but really the weight of the cortical layer which should be
compared in the different races and subjects, in order to judge of
the quantity of substance devoted to the psychic functions in each
particular case.[111] Before the very delicate weighings of this kind
are made, we have a round-about method of ascertaining the quantity
of that substance by the superficial area which it occupies. The
cerebral cortex, composed of the grey substance, forms on the surface
of the brain sinuous folds called _cerebral convolutions_. Now, in
brains of equal volume, the greater the surface of the cortex, the
more numerous, sinuous, and complicated will be these folds. As the
thickness of the grey layer is very much the same in all brains, it
is evident that the complexity in the structure of the convolutions
corresponds to the increase of the grey substance, and consequently
of the psychic force. Now, the little that is known of the cerebral
convolutions in different races, and of various subjects in the same
race, appears to conform to this deduction. The brains of idiots, of
the weak-minded, present very simple convolutions, almost comparable to
those of the anthropoid apes, whose brain is like a simplified diagram
of the human brain. On the other hand, distinguished personages, great
scholars, orators, men of action, exhibit a complexity, sometimes
truly remarkable, of _certain_ convolutions. I say expressly certain
convolutions, for all these folds, arranged according to a certain
plan, common to all men, have not the same value from the physiological
point of view. In the grey layer of certain of them are the centres
of motor impulses, and of the general sensibility of the body (for
example, those which are arranged around the fissure of Rolando, Fig.
25, 2, 2), and only regulate the voluntary movements of the limbs,
the trunk and the head; others are connected with different forms of
sensibility--visual (Fig. 25, 4), auditory (Fig. 25, 6), gustatory,
olfactory, etc. But there are, between the different motor or sensorial
regions (_centres of projection_) which take nearly a third of the
grey substance of the brain, a great many more convolutions the grey
substance of which is connected with no special function (white spots
in Fig. 25). What is their purpose? Basing his opinion on the tardy
_myelinisation_[112] of the nerve-fibres which terminate in it,
subsequent to the birth of the individual and to the myelinisation of
the fibres of the sensory and motor centres, Flechsig[113] supposes
that these convolutions were designed to enable the different
cerebral centres to communicate with each other and to render us
conscious of this communication; therefore he has named their grey
substance “_centres of association_” (Fig. 25, 1, 3, 5). Without the
convolutions, the other centres would remain isolated and condemned to
a very restricted activity. Now, as the eminent anatomist Turner[114]
has shown so clearly, it is found that the convolutions of the sensory
and motor centres do not present any great differences in the brain of
a child, a monkey, a Bushman, or of a European man of science, like
Gauss; what differentiates these brains is the degree of complexity of
the convolutions concerned with association. There, then, is the part
of the brain which we want to utilise for the purpose of comparison,
reduced by almost a third. But let us suppose that differences of
volume and weight are found in these two-thirds of the grey substance.
Have we more reason to think that we are approaching the solution of
the problem?
[Illustration: /Fig./ 25.--Brain with indication of the three “centres
of projection” (2, general sensibility; 4, visual; 6, auditory) and
the three “centres of association” (1, frontal; 3, parietal; 5,
occipito-temporal); 1, fissure of Rolando; 7, Island of Reil.
(_After Flechsig._)]
It is believed that certain cells of the grey substance only, the
great and the little pyramidal-shaped cells, are associated with
the psychical functions, and that each of these, forming with its
axis-cylinder, dendrons and other branching prolongations what is
called a _neuron_, is not in constant connection with, and does not
occupy a fixed position once for all in regard to, other similar
_neurons_, but may by means of its prolongations place itself
alternately in contact with a great number of these.[115] Hence the
complexity of the nervous currents resulting from these continual
changes of contact. Thus the cerebral activity might not merely
be measured by the quantity and the size of the cells of the grey
substance, but also by the number and the variety of the habitual
contacts which are probably established after an education, a training
of the cells. As from the same number of keys of a piano the tyro can
produce only a few dissimilar sounds, while an artist elicits varied
melodies, so from cerebral cells practically equal in number a savage
is only able to extract vague and rudimentary ideas, while a thinker
brings out of them intellectual treasures. How far are we, then, from
the true appreciation of cerebral work with our rude weighings of an
organ in which, with one part that would assuredly help us to the
solution of the problem, we weigh at least three other parts having
nothing or almost nothing to do with it! And even if we succeeded in
finding the number, the weight, and the volume of the neurons, how are
we to estimate the innumerable combinations of which they are capable?
The problem appears almost insoluble. However, in science we must
never lose hope, and--who knows?--perhaps some day the solution of the
question will be found, and it will then appear as simple as to-day it
appears a matter of course to see through the body with radioscopical
apparatus.