Scientific American Supplement, No. 392, July 7, 1883Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 392, July 7, 1883
Various
Science -- Periodicals
[Illustration: Esequibo Indian woman, showing the following
peculiarities: deficient bridge of nose, prognathism, no waist, and
(the right hand figure) deficiency of stature through short femur. From
photographs by Endlich.]
It must be noted here that the difference between the young and
embryonic monkeys and the adults is quite the same as those just
mentioned as distinguishing the young from the adult of man (Figs. 1 and
2). The change, however, in the case of the monkeys is greater than
in the case of man. That is, in the monkeys the jaws and superciliary
ridges become still more prominent than in man. As these characters
result from a fuller course of growth from the infant, it is evident
that in these respects the apes are more fully developed than man.
Man stops short in the development of the face, and is in so far more
embryonic.[1] The prominent forehead and reduced jaws of man are
characters of "retardation." The characters of the prominent nose with
its elevated bridge, is a result of "acceleration," since it is a
superaddition to the quadrumanous type from both the standpoints of
paleontology and embryology.[2] The development of the bridge of the
nose is no doubt directly connected with the development of the front of
the cerebral part of the skull and ethmoid bone, which sooner or later
carries the nasal bones with it.
[Footnote 1: This fact has been well stated by C. S. Minot in the
_Naturalist_ for 1882, p. 511.]
[Footnote 2: See Cope, The Hypothesis of Evolution, New Haven, 1870, p.
31.]
[Illustration: The Venus of the Capitol (Rome). The form and face
present the characteristic peculiarities of the female of the
Indo-European race.]
If we now examine the leading characters of the physiognomy of three
of the principal human sub-species, the Negro, the Mongolian, and the
Indo-European, we can readily observe that it is in the two first named
that there is a predominance of the quadrumanous features which are
retarded in man; and that the embryonic characters which predominate are
those in which man is accelerated. In race description the prominence
of the edges of the jaws is called prognathism, and its absence
orthognathism. The significance of the two lower race characters as
compared with those of the Indo-European is as follows:
_Negro_.--Hair crisp (a special character), short (quadrum. accel.);
prognathous (quadrum. accel.); nose flat, without bridge (quadrum.
retard)[1]; malar bones prominent (quadrum. accel.); beard short
(quadrum. retard.); arms longer (quadrum. accel.); extensor muscles of
legs small (quadrum. retard.).
[Footnote 1: In the Bochimans, the flat nasal bones are co-ossified with
the adjacent elements as in the apes (Thulié).]
_Mongolian_.--Hair straight, long (accel.); jaws prognathous (quadrum.
accel.); nose flat or prominent with or without bridge; malar bones
prominent (quadrum. accel.); beard none (embryonic); arms shorter
(retard.); extensor muscles of leg smaller (quad. retard.).
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