5+ 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tremes. The Germans of the north are dolichocephalic, the Germans 

 of the south brachycephalic. 



While recognizing the importance of the characters drawn from 

 these general forms, we must guard ourselves against exaggerating 

 their import or giving them a wrong signification. Some authors, 

 belonging to the dolichocephalic races, have pretended that the elonga- 

 tion of the head behind is a sign of intellectual superiority. The fact 

 I have just stated suffices to refute this conclusion, and nothing justi- 

 fies it. The Germans of the south are noways inferior to their country- 

 men of the north. In the Academy of Sciences in Paris, the brachy- 

 cephalic crania, or at most the mesocephalic, are in very great major- 

 ity ; and still, what association of men is superior, in an intellectual 

 point of view, to this philosophical body ? 



Analogous indications have been drawn from the greater or less 

 capacity of the cranium. It has been supposed that this exactly cor- 

 responded in measure to the volume of the brain, and this volume has 

 been regarded as a sort of measure of intellectual power. 



That there is some truth at the bottom of the idea that a brain 

 sufficiently developed is necessary to give the power to fulfil its func- 

 tions, is what all the world admits. But that intellectual power is 

 measured by the quantity of cerebral matter entering into the composi- 

 tion of the organ is in contradiction to the observations and the figures 

 of many anatomists, among others, of R. Wagner. 



In considerations of this nature we do not generally take account 

 of the stature. Now, although the head does not enlarge in the same 

 proportion as the rest of the body, it is not the less true that its form 

 has an influence on its dimensions and on those of the cranium. 



Besides, with organized and living beings, the volume, the mass of 

 organs, is not all. Their special energy is much more. Certainly you 

 all know small persons, of slender aspect, who are more active and 

 strong than some of their comrades who are larger and more muscular. 

 Well, how is it that what is true of flesh, of muscle, is not also true 

 of brain ? 



After the cranium we come to the face. But I will only speak of 

 a single order of characters drawn from the jaws and teeth. 



Observe a negro, and a European. Look at the jaws and teeth 

 of the first. You see them project in front. In the second, on the 

 contrary, teeth and jaws are equally vertical. The first of these is 

 called prognathism, and the peoples or individuals who present them 

 are said to be prognathous ; the second takes the name of orthognathism 

 and characterizes the orthognathous races or individuals. 



Prognathism has long been considered as characterizing the negro 

 races. Since, we have found it in people who could not be afiiliated 

 with the negro ; and, finally, looking closely into the matter, we have 

 found it in the heart of white populations. At Paris, even, it is fre- 

 quent enough, particularly among women. This is a fact of which 



