I THE TONER LECTURES. 



in forming or maintaining the different parts of the skull each to 

 the others. 



Many of the charactei's obtained in this manner are of necessity 

 minute ; so, indeed, are the distinctions upon which the anthro- 

 pologist relies. The obliquity of the palpebral fissure, the color 

 of the iris, the distribution of the hair, or the characters furnished 

 by the individual hair may be mentioned in this connection. 



The significance which can be attached to the study of variation 

 either in the study of race grade, or in the large question of evolu- 

 tion of organic forms, is of course conceded. The last named 

 cannot be determined until extended series of data have been col- 

 lected. If, according to Engel (Untersuchungen iiber Schiidel- 

 formen, p. 121), uncultivated primitive races exhibit few variations 

 in the composition of the skull as compared with the more ad- 

 vanced, we may be prepared to accept Retzius' dictum that indi- 

 vidual differences become greater in proportion to the higher intel- 

 lectual development of a nation. Preservation of such facts as the 

 disposition of the minute plates and processes of the interior of the 

 nasal chambers and of the base of the skull, the description of 

 suture changes, of the depressions made by small veins, and of the 

 minor deviations in size of paired structures may have an outcome 

 as interesting as those derived by discovery of structures which 

 exist on a larger scale. 



The lack of fixation of characters should not of necessity diminish 

 their value. Beginnings of characters are always facile and inde- 

 terminate. This is nature's process. 



The effects of diseased action, although their manifestations be 

 apparently insignificant, are also worthy of study from the stand- 

 point of the biologist as well as that of the pathologist. When pro- 

 duced from other than traumatic causes, these effects have distinct 

 value. They may indicate modifications of the processes of life, 

 which are of the same kind as those furnished by the anatomy of 

 normal parts. 



