»66 



ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 



duced ; but the chief characteristic of the skull is presented by 

 the large and prominent cheek-bones, the lower border of which 

 terminates a plane extending from the ectorbital process down- 

 ward, outward, and forward. The zygomata are long and strong. 

 The lower jaw is large, with a well-marked chin. These cha- 

 racters are repeated, mtli slight modifications, in the Esquimaux, 

 but with varying proportions of length to breadth in the cranium. 

 Among the Laplanders, with similar characters of zygomata and 

 jaws, and the sloping of the calvarium from the sagittal line, the 

 cranium is short, averaging 6*90 inches, mth a breadth of 5*78 

 inches. But the so-called 'pyramidal type,' as exemplified in 

 fig. 380, and in most races inhabiting high northern latitudes, and 

 extending southward in Asia, is associated with both long (doli- 

 chocephalic) and short (brachy cephalic) crania. Blumenbach's 

 ^ Mongolian ' characters are, in the main, those of Pritchard's 

 ' pyramidal type.' Where much uniformity of manner of life and 

 of degree of mental power prevails, as, e.g., in the Lapps and 

 the Esquimaux, a certain constancy of cranial character is asso- 

 ciated therewith : where difference of work and of social grade 

 creeps in, then cranial characters become inconstant. This is, 

 now, manifested instructively by extended comparison of the 



skulls of the wide-spread Poly- 

 nesian peoples. Prognathism 

 is still the most constant feature 

 in them, concomitant probably 

 with late weaning of the infant. 

 It is a conspicuous character 

 in the skull of the native of 

 Tahiti, fig. 383,' in which the 

 forehead is narrow and sloping : 

 the parietal protuberances mo- 

 derately developed and the 

 cranium of moderate length ; it is narrower and flatter at the sides 

 than in the White races generally. The nasal bones are prominent. 

 Of the varieties exhibited by the aborigines of the two American 

 continents, the works of Dr. Morton ^ give ample evidence. 



In the skull of a Macusi Indian, from Guiana, figs. 384, 385,^ 

 the cranium is symmetrically formed, narrow at the forehead, 

 expanded at the parietal bosses, with the broad and rather low 

 nasals coming off in a line with the glabella ; the upper jaw is 

 produced, but the zygomata and the mandible have European 

 characters. 



383 



' XLiv. i)u. 5386. 



XLiv. no. 5405. 



