Degeneracy: Its Causes, Signs and ResultsTalbot, Eugene S. (Eugene Solomon)
History
Degeneracy: Its Causes, Signs and Results
Talbot, Eugene S. (Eugene Solomon)
Abnormalities, Human; Degeneration; Heredity, Human
The development of the face depends, as I have already shown, upon the
enlargement and fusion of the mouth and nose cavities, and upon the later
partial separation of the nose and mouth and the nose cavities, leaving
the posterior nose open. It depends further upon the growth and
specialisation of the face region, of which the elongation is the most
prominent indication, and finally upon the development of a prominent
external nose. The relations of face to cranium in embryology have already
been described. When the medullary tube of the notochord enlarges to form
the brain the end of the head bends over to make room for that
enlargement. The bending of the head carries the mouth plate, which is to
be the mouth, over to the front of the head. The changes which develop the
mouth cavity are the growth of the brain and the increase in size of the
heart cavity, which expand to the front, leaving the mouth cavity between
them. The mouth cavity represents two gill-slits united in the front line.
The nose is formed from two olfactory plates situated just in front of the
mouth and in contact with the fore-brain. These olfactory plates grow in
size by the increase of tissue, and the resulting pits pass away from the
brain. At first these pits, although widely separated by what is called
the nasal process, communicate freely with the mouth. The nasal process
includes the origin of the future nose and of the future intermaxillary
region of the upper lip.
The human face is modified backward from the vertebrate type. It is an
additional illustration of the degeneracy of a series of related
structures for the benefit of the organism as a whole. The progress of
development of the face in the vertebrates is checked in man. First, as
Minot remarks,[196] because the upright position renders it unnecessary to
bend the head as in quadrupeds. Second, because the enormous cerebral
development has rendered an enlargement of the brain cavity necessary.
This has taken place by extending the cavity over the nose region as well
as by enlarging the whole skull. Third, because the development of the
face is arrested at an embryonic stage; the production of a long snout
being really an advance of development which does not take place in man.
From what has been said of the relations of the dermal bones to the nose
and face in the chapter on the skull, it will be obvious that these must
follow the same laws as to degeneracy as the skull itself. These checks
from degeneracy in arrest of development are apt to affect most obviously
the unilateral development of the face. From this results the exaggerated
asymmetry so frequently observed.
Jacob Baumler, the founder of the Zoar community of the United States, a
religious fanatic, had a very marked asymmetry of the face and the mind
of a degenerate. His orbits were unequal, one being exceedingly large and
the other correspondingly small.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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