OUR FACE FROM FISH TO MAN 



The human embryo, Hke that of mammals of all 

 other orders, still shows in the clearest, most unde- 

 niable way, the origin of the malleus and incus from 

 the reduced primary jaw elements (Figs. 114, 115). 



Ancient and Modern Physiognomy 



The art of reading character from the human 

 face is one of the things that every woman knows 

 and every man prides himself upon. But the 

 courts are crowded with the wrongs of deceived 

 women and the prisons are filled with wolves in 

 sheep's clothing who have hidden a ravenous heart 

 behind faces that confident physiognomists, in- 

 cluding practical men of business, have diagnosed 

 as honest. What is the matter then with the 

 popular "science" of physiognomy.^ 



To the ancients, never embarrassed by facts, 



physiognomy was as easy as every other branch of 



science. Aristotle, according to the Encyclopaedia 



Britannica (article on Physiognomy), taught that 



noses with thick bulbous ends belong to persons 



who are swinish; sharp-tipped noses belong to the 



irascible, those easily provoked, like dogs; large 



rounded, obtuse noses to the magnanimous, the 



lion-like; slender hooked noses to the eagle-like, 



220 



