LINCOLN — STEWART 



433 



cates nasion below its true position, he increases the height of the 

 forehead and correspondingly decreases the height of the nose and 

 lower face. Of course, the reverse is the case when the observer locates 

 nasion above its true position. Obviously, these circumstances under- 

 mine the reliability of all measurements based on nasion. 



Now the above figures suggest that, as compared to Hrdlicka, 

 I have placed nasion low. Whether this is so, or whether Lincoln 

 did have a lower-than-average face height and nose height with 

 a relatively high forehead, must remain in doubt. In spite of this 

 and other points of uncertainty, it is remarkable how nearly modal in 

 position Lincoln's face measurements turn out to be when plotted 

 as in figure 1. 



Hands. — The difficulty of comparing Lincoln's hands metrically 

 has been explained. Although we cannot tell directly how big his 

 hands were on the scale of the Old Americans, we can get some 

 idea of their relative size by using another hand for intermediate 

 comparisons. My own will serve as well as any other. I am a little 

 under 6 feet in height and my hand falls well within the Old Ameri- 

 can range as the following figures (in mm.) show : 



Length 

 Breadth, 



Authors left Old Americans (left) 



198 (247) 192.8 Range: 172-223 



90 (247) 91.8 Range: 77-110 



When I hold my hands in the positions of the cast hands of Lincoln, 

 the distance across the second to fifth knuckles is 89 mm. on both sides. 

 This is only 5 or 6 mm. less than on the casts and probably would 

 scarcely be noticed in visual comparisons. A comparable measure of 

 Lincoln's finger length— that is, from nail edge to the apex of the meta- 

 carpophalangeal knuckle — gives him an advantage amounting per- 

 haps to 20 mm., as shown in the following figures : 



Although the apex of the knuckle is not an exact landmark for linear 

 measurement, the general metrical difference brought out in this table 

 .can hardly be due to observational error. It seems quite likely, 

 therefore, that Lincoln had a hand which, like the rest 



