DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 47 



of the cranial cavity, this augmentation is comparatively small in amount, 

 and but little affects the general configuration of the cranium. 1 



29. The great size of the cranial portion of the skull in Man, as compared 

 with the facial, produces a marked difference between his "facial angle" and 

 that of even the highest Quadrumana. According to Camper, who first 

 applied this method of measurement, the "facial angle" of the average of 

 European skulls is 80; whilst in the ideal heads of the Grecian gods it is 

 increased to 90; on the other hand, in the skull of a Kalmuck he found it 

 to be 75, and in that of a negro only 70; and applying the same system 

 of measurement to the skulls of Apes, he found them to range from 64 to 

 60. But these last measurements were all taken from young skulls, in 

 which the forward extension of the jaws, which takes place on the second 

 dentition, had not yet occurred. In the adult Chimpanzee, as Prof. Owen 

 has shown, the "facial angle" (Figs. 4, 5, 6, A o p) is no more than 35, 

 and in the adult Orang only 30; so that instead of the Negro being nearer 

 to the Ape than to the European, as Camper's estimate would make him, 

 the interval between the most degraded Human races and the most elevated 

 Quadrumana, is considerably greater than between the highest and the low- 

 est forms of Humanity. It must be borne in mind, however, that the "facial 

 angle" is so much affected by the degree of prominence of the jaws, that it 

 can never afford any certain information concerning the elevation of the 

 forehead and the capacity of the cranium ; all that it can in any degree 

 serve to indicate, being the relative proportion between the facial and the 

 cranial parts of the skull. This proportion is far more correctly determined, 

 as Prof. Owen has shown, 2 by vertical sections of the skulls to be compared, 

 through their median planes (Figs. 4, 5, 6) ; and from an extended compari- 

 son of such sections, it appears that whilst the difference between the cranial 

 cavity of the higher Apes and that of Man is rather one of relative size than 

 of conformation, there is a far more strongly marked difference, not only in 

 relative size but also in conformation, between the cranial cavities of the 

 higher and those of the lower Quadrumana, the latter being not only far 

 less capacious in proportion to the size of the body, but being also disposed 

 in such a manner that its long diameter comes to be continuous (as in Quad- 

 rupeds generally) with the axis of the spinal canal, instead of crossing it 

 nearly at right angles as in Man. The length of the cerebral cavity in Man 

 is more than twice that of the basi-crauial axis. Its capacity in the healthy 

 adult is invariably more than forty cubic inches, and may rise to more than 

 a hundred cubic inches (Huxley). 



30. The Vertebral Column in Man, although not absolutely straight, has 

 its curves so arranged, that, when the body is in an erect posture, a vertical 

 line from its summit would fall exactly on the centre of its base. It increases 

 considerably in size in the lumbar region, so as altogether to be somewhat 

 pyramidal in form. The lumbar portion in the Chimpanzee and Orang is 

 not of the same proportional strength, and contains but four vertebra? instead 

 of five. The processes for the attachment of the dorso-spinal muscles to this 

 part are peculiarly large and strong in Man ; and this arrangement is obvi- 

 ously adapted to overcome the tendency which the weight of the viscera in 

 front of the column would have to draw it forwards and downwards. On 

 the other hand, the spinous processes of the cervical and dorsal vertebra?, 

 which in other Mammalia are large and strong for the attachment of the 



1 See Prof. Owen's Papers on the Anatomy of the Orang and Chimpanzee, in the 

 Zoological Transactions, vols. i and iii ; and Prof. Vrolik in the Art. Quadrumana in 

 the Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology, vol. iv. 



2 Zoological Transactions, vol. iv, p. 77 et seq. 



