820 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mann's rule to be almost, if not altogether, infallible. Can Professor 

 Fowler point out a corresponding difference in the shape of the pos- 

 terior skull? "Amativeness," too, may or may not affect the bones 

 above the nape, but Theophrastus, Galen, Delia Porta, Lavater, Dr. 

 Redfield, and all portrait-painters, agree that it is disclosed by the eye- 

 Ms, especially the lower ones. 



Lavater and other critical students of the human face have shown 

 the fallacy of some popular notions for instance, the connection of a 

 high forehead with superior intelligence but also that generally re- 

 ceived opinions differ less in different nations and ages than should be 

 supposed ; and it is surprising of what minute symptoms even the 

 ancient nations have taken cognizance. 



There is, indeed, hardly a facial muscle that has not been suspected 

 of betraying mental peculiarities. " A forehead loaded with wrinkles " 

 Aristotle supposes to indicate a gloomy, morose, and overbearing dis- 

 position,, and furthermore thinks that, if these wrinkles are massed 

 over the eye, it denotes cruelty. According to Galen, a depression in 

 the center of the forehead announces a melancholy temper or a recol- 

 lection of an awful crime, though he admits that physical excesses may 

 produce the same effect. 



" Vertical incisions in the bone of the forehead," says Lavater, 

 "belong exclusively to persons of uncommon capacity and to independ- 

 ent thinkers." Perjicndieular wrinkles he holds to be the emblems 

 of wrath, because such furrows are formed in the paroxysm of that 

 passion. If the forehead is crowded with horizontal wrinkles, it may 

 indicate ferocity or severe mental application, but their entire absence 

 can only be the effect of a cheerful disposition. 



" If the frontal bone is convex," says Huart, "it indicates an un- 

 developed mind ; all infants have such foreheads, and, under the in- 

 fluence of culture, the curve gradually disappears." TVinekelmann in- 

 dorses this notion, and thinks that the more straight lines the forehead 

 exhibits the more judgment it will indicate, but at the same time so 

 much the less sensibility. AVrinkles lengthwise between the eyebrows, 

 Huart interprets as a sign of habitual melancholy reflections, and he, 

 as well as Lavater and Redfield, believes that the prominence of the 

 bone immediately above the eyebrows denotes aptitude for long-con- 

 tinued mental labor. " If asked what a low forehead denotes," Dr. 

 Cams remarks, "I should say a vigorous scalp, or a predominating 

 lateral development of the skull, but certainly not a low degree of in- 

 telligence" ; and Horace went so far as to celebrate a frons tenuis as 

 a sign of an ingenious mind. 



" Gently arched eyebrows," says Campanella, " accord with the 

 modesty and simplicity of a virgin ; rough, irregular ones are the 

 signs of ungovernable vivacity," and Dr. Redfield adds that on this 

 point the physiognomists of all nations agree. If the hair of the 

 eyebrows is thin or begins to fall out, Dr. Haller regards it as a sure 



