886 Scientific Intelligence — Anthropology, 



violent colic, and twenty-hours afterwards experienced scarcely 

 any uneasiness. — Ibid. 



24. Anatomical and Physiological Remarhs on Huiichbacks, 

 —Although the observations of Dr Stern, recorded in Miiller's 

 Archiv, cannot be said to throw any new light upon this sub- 

 ject, yet they have served to place in nearer juxtaposition, and 

 have ehcited some curious points of comparison on the organi- 

 zation of this deformed class of persons. Even the most inat- 

 tentive observer must have remarked the sort of family likeness, 

 both of mind and body, that runs through the individuals la- 

 bouring under this deformity, a likeness arising not merely from 

 the existence of a hump in all, but from a similarity in com- 

 plexion, in the general form of the head, and in the care-worn, 

 superannuated appearance of the face. Their limbs, too, have 

 all the same disproportioned appearance, and seem evidently 

 fashioned to serve a trunk of larger proportions. But though 

 the growth of other parts, as for example, the extremities, has 

 not been suppressed equally with the growth of the trunk, yet 

 neither has the development of these parts proceeded regularly, 

 and it is to this curious phenomenon that the memoir of Stern 

 is directed, for he proves that the different bones of the extre- 

 mities in hunchbacks do not bear their due proportion to each 

 other. Thus the thigh-bone is somewhat shorter than it ought 

 to be, even in proportion to the diminished stature of the indi- 

 vidual, while the bones of the feet are very large, and suited to 

 a much taller person ; of all the bones the humerus is propor- 

 tionally the longest, and to this is owing the great comparative 

 length of the upper extremities in people thus deformed. The 

 skulls of hunchbacks present a very curious proportion between 

 the cranium, properly so called, or brain case, and the skeleton 

 of the face. In fact the former equals in size that of a well 

 grown adult, while the bones of the face remain undeveloped 

 and small, as in childhood ; this gives their physiognomy a 

 very curious expression, for in their heads old age and wisdom 

 seem associated with several of the elements of childhood and 

 simplicity. In the form of the lower jaw, in the great size of 

 the mouth, and the compressed flatness of the lips, in the sharp 

 elongated nose, we recognise a striking likeness between all 

 hunchbacks. It is curious thus to find that a disease of one or 



