THE SKULL AS A BASIS FOR RACE CLASSIFICATION. 25 
On the results of this formula, faces are classified as high 
and low according as their indices are above or below 90. 
Since, however, the lower jaw is very frequently absent 
from skulls which are collected in different parts of the 
world, as, for example, in New Guinea, where the women 
use this bone as a bracelet, another formula is required, 
VIZ, :-— 
Nasio-alveolar diameter x 100 
Bi-zygomatic diameter 
= Maxillary Index. 
On this calculation the faces are again high and low 
according as their indices are above or below 50. Most 
Europeans have high, 7.e., narrow faces; but Esquimaux and 
Mongols have low, 7.e., broad faces. 
Not only the face as a whole, but its separate features, 
may be made the basis of classification. 
Thus the Nose provides a feature in which much racial 
variation is found, and no greater contrasts could be 
imagined than the typical Grecian nose and the short, squat, 
bridgeless nose of the Australian Aboriginal or the extinct 
Tasmanian. The differences are mainly due to variations 
in the size of the nasal bones. At the nasal aperture the 
nasal spine is either poorly developed as in the Australian 
Aboriginal, who in this respect approximates to the lower 
animals, or well developed as in the Europeans. When the 
nasal spine is faint, a certain amount of prognathism is 
always present; but when the nasal spine is absent, as in 
the Anthropoid Apes, the prognathism is marked. During 
life the nasal cartilages greatly influence the direction of 
the nasal opening, but as these are absent in the dry skull, 
the nasal aperture looks forwards. This opening is measured 
as follows :—height of the aperture is the distance from the 
nasion to the floor of the nose at the base of the nasal spine 
(subnasal point); the width of the aperture varies, but the 
‘greatest width is taken. In this way 
Nasal width x 100 
— Nasal Index. 
Nasal height too 
Narrow nostrils (Leptorhine), below 48—e.g., English and 
-Esquimaux. 
