Human skulls have been found to differ from one another, not merely in
their absolute size and in the absolute capacity of the brain case,
but in the proportions which the diameters of the latter bear to
one another; in the relative size of the bones of the face (and more
particularly of the jaws and teeth) as compared with those of the skull;
in the degree to which the upper jaw (which is of course followed by
the lower) is thrown backwards and downwards under the fore-part of
the brain case, or forwards and upward in front of and beyond it. They
differ further in the relations of the transverse diameter of the face,
taken through the cheek bones, to the transverse diameter of the skull;
in the more rounded or more gable-like form of the roof of the skull,
and in the degree to which the hinder part of the skull is flattened or
projects beyond the ridge, into and below which, the muscles of the neck
are inserted.
In some skulls the brain case may be said to be 'round,' the extreme
length not exceeding the extreme breadth by a greater proportion than
100 to 80, while the difference may be much less. [12] Men possessing such
skulls were termed by Retzius 'brachycephalic,' and the skull of a
Calmuck, of which a front and side view (reduced outline copies of
which are given in Figure 27) are depicted by Von Baer in his excellent,
"Crania selecta," affords a very admirable example of that kind of
skull. Other skulls, such as that of a Negro copied in Fig. 28 from Mr.
Busk's 'Crania typica,' have a very different, greatly elongated form,
and may be termed 'oblong.' In this skull the extreme length is to the
extreme breadth as 100 to not more than 67, and the transverse diameter
of the human skull may fall below even this proportion. People having
such skulls were called by Retzius 'dolichocephalic.'
The most cursory glance at the side views of these two skulls will
suffice to prove that they differ, in another respect, to a very
striking extent. The profile of the face of the Calmuck is almost
vertical, the facial bones being thrown downwards and under the forepart
of the skull. The profile of the face of the Negro, on the other hand,
is singularly inclined, the front part of the jaws projecting far
forward beyond the level of the fore part of the skull. In the former
case the skull is said to be 'orthognathous' or straight-jawed; in the
latter, it is called 'prognathous,' a term which has been rendered, with
more force than elegance, by the Saxon equivalent,--'snouty.'
Various methods have been devised in order to express with some accuracy
the degree of prognathism or orthognathism of any given skull; most of
these methods being essentially modifications of that devised by Peter
Camper, in order to attain what he called the 'facial angle.'
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