188 



DEVELOPMENT OF EXTERNAL NOSE IN WHITES AND NEGROES. 



white fetuses. An example of this type is shown in the left head in figure 7, which 

 was that of a white fetus at the middle of the fifth month. The right head repre- 

 sents the other extreme, viz., a white fetus at the end of the fourth month with a 

 deep nasal bridge and a very prominent glabella. 



NOSTRILS AND ALJE NASI. 



The smallest breadth of the nasal septum, or the distance between the nostrils, 

 in the third and fourth month is on an average 1.3 to 2.2 mm. It increases during 

 the fifth and sixth month to 2.9 mm. and reaches 4 mm. at birth. In negro fetuses 

 this distance is, as a rule, slightly smaller than in white ones; in adults, however, 

 this breadth averages in whites 6.7 mm. and in negroes 7.4 mm. The variability 

 within the individual age groups is very high. In relation to the nasal breadth the 

 breadth of the nasal septum is much greater in the beginning of fetal development 

 than later on. 



The position of the septum as it meets the upper lip is very changeable when 

 compared with the level of the lowest points of the nasal wings where they are 

 attached to the cheeks. The following table shows the percentage frequency with 

 which the different types of attachment are observed : 



TABLE 14. 



In both whites and negroes cases of relatively high attachment of the nasal 

 septum are most frequently encountered during the first and last third of intra- 

 uterine life, while from the fourth to the sixth month such specimens are rare and a 

 nasal septum reaching farther down than the alse nasi forms the rule. These differ- 

 ences in the height of attachment are for the most part rather insignificant, but 

 specimens with a very pronounced difference in this respect were encountered at 

 times. In adult whites the nasal septum was always found to be situated at a lower 

 level than the wings. The opposite relation is a racial peculiarity of the adults of 

 some primitive races for instance, the Senoi. 1 



In both races the external nares are closed by epidermal plugs up to the end 

 of the fourth month. In rare cases, however, they may be patent at a much earlier 

 date, or may sometimes be found closed in slightly older fetuses. In negro fetuses 

 the nostrils are directed more forward than in whites, a difference which becomes 

 more marked during the later period of pregnancy. Up to the end of the fourth 

 month the nostrils are mostly circular in both races; after that time, in the majority 

 of cases they become elongated, with then- longitudinal axes converging forward or 



'Asymmetries in the position of the alae nasi could be noted even in fetuses. In No. 1185, for example (white, first part 

 pf sixth month), the right wing was situated lower and the left one higher than the nasal septum. 



