CEANIOMETRT AND CKANIOORAPHT. 355 



In this table it will be seen that the measurements, so far as the 

 exterior of the skull is concerned, include nearly all those of Prof. 

 V. Baer and other craniologists, with some additions, required, as it 

 seems to us, for the objects above proposed. 



But a few words in explanation of it will be required. "And, 

 firstly, with reference to the word vertical, it will be necessary to 

 define what is meant by a vertical line in the cranium, a thing 

 which does not appear, so far as we are aware, to have been 

 hitherto very precisely laid down. To do this, and before we 

 proceed to measure the cranium, and especially before we attempt 

 to delineate it, it is necessary to determine upon some fixed position 

 in which it is to be regarded, and with reference to which many of 

 the Lines in which the measurements are taken are to be conceived 

 as drawn. "We have also, in the second place, to determine upon 

 certain fixed points from which certain of the measurements are to 

 be taken. Without these precautions any accurate comparisons are 

 impossible. 



1. With respect to the position of the skull. It is obvious that 

 this depends simply upon what we are to regard as its vertical or its 

 horizontal plane, either of course being sufficient for the determina- 

 tion of the other. The importance of the determination of this point 

 is acknowledged by all craniologists, although up to the present time 

 there does not seem to have been much accord respecting it among 

 them. 



In the Gottingen Eeport (p, 35), Prof. v. Baer remarks, that, in 

 the delineation of a skull, " it is atjove aU things necessary that an 

 " agreement should be come to respecting the horizontal plane, in 

 " order that difterent figures should be really comparable." Though 

 this observation is eminently true as regards figures of the cranium, 

 it is scarcely less applicable in the case of taking, at any rate some, 

 of the measurements. The horizontal plane, hitherto most usually 

 adopted, has been one passing through the centre of the external 

 auditory foramen and along the floor of the nostrils. But a little 

 consideration will show that this is not the true horizontal plane of 

 the head. A really horizontal line starting from the centre of the 

 auditory foramen would, in most cases, as remarked by v. Baer 

 (p. 36), pass a good way above the floor of the nose. The plane of 

 the foramen magnum, which some have assumed as the horizontal 

 plane, is still further from the true one, and is besides excessively 

 variable. Professor Lucse, in his excellent figures, has assumed that 

 the direction of the zygomatic arch, or rather of its upper border, 

 coincides with the horizontal plane. In this we are fuUy disposed 

 to agree, though we think that the plane in question may be ascer- 

 tained in a more precise way than by simjjly taking the zygoma 

 itself, which is often considerably curved, as the indicator. If we are 

 not mistaken the Abbe Prere first proposed to take as a vertical line 

 one drawn from the middle of the auditory foramen to the junction 

 of the coronal and sagittal sutures. At any rate, we have adopted 



