12 OBSERVATIONS AND MEASUREMENTS ACADEMY MEMBERS IMemoI [vol N xxin, 



Table 13. — Nasal root depression 



Nose: Shape 



By "nose shape" we understand the form of the dorsal ridge of the nose. This form is 

 interestingly variable in man, and in the white races in particular. It is due in the main to the 

 different developments of the bony and cartilaginous nose, but also to that of the soft parts of 

 the organ. 



The differences may be merely ontogenetic. The shape of the nose changes more or less, 

 particularly in the males, from birth to the oldest age ; they may be of a generalized racial char- 

 acter; they may be hereditary family peculiarities; and they may be individual differentiations 

 for which no cause is discernible. In a group of prevalently elderly males, such as the members 

 of the Academy, the findings may be regarded as those of the fully matured plus some old-age 

 modifications. 



There are four main shapes of the nose. They are the concave, the straight, the aquiline 

 or convex, and the wavy or concavo-convex ; and the concave as well as the convex may thus be 

 moderate, medium, or pronounced. The concave form is the infantile, the pronouncedly convex 

 the prevalent most advanced adult. All these forms are encountered in the old American 

 adult population at large. The members of the Academy showed these conditions: 



Table 14. — Nose: Shape 



In comparing the above three series it should be borne in mind that the old Americans at 

 large included numerous younger adults with but a very few individuals over 60, while the con- 

 ditions in the two Academy series are the reverse. In consequence of this, the old Americans at 

 large show a fair number of noses that are still slightly to moderately concave, forms which in 

 the academicians have already completely disappeared, having changed mainly into straight 

 noses. Aside from this, the old Americans in and outside of the Academy present a close agree- 

 ment. The academicians of more recent European extraction differ in these respects somewhat 

 from the old Americans in general, both in and outside of the Academy, by showing a decidedly 

 higher proportion of straight noses, with somewhat less of both the mildly convex and the con- 

 cavo-convex forms. In all probability the men of this series when younger had also a larger 

 proportion of concave noses, which later in life have straightened. 



