Highest Types of Human Form. 78 



European skulls the brain measures about 66 inches. There are, 

 however, variations in this particular, both ancient and modern, 

 so that we can only estimate from the mean, which indicates with 

 certainty a smaller capacity in ancient skulls. In the ancient 

 skulls generally there is greater development in the jaws, the 

 cheek-bone projects more, the teeth generally project more, the 

 chin less, and the lower jaw is wider and stronger. 



Boihi. — Greater entire stature. This matter is somewhat 

 difficult to follow with certainty, as the scale to which the 

 human figure is represented in paintings and sculpture varies, 

 being often much exaggerated for the figures of important 

 persons. We have, however, on this subject, the important 

 evidence of the bodies of great men and women preserved as 

 mummies, and as it is the rule that the aristocracy of any 

 nation are the tallest and finest human forms, we may assume 

 this rule always held. Thus, in the British Museum we have 

 twenty-five mummies exhibited of important persons, which I 

 have measured as carefully as I can ; allowing for wrappings, the 

 average height of the bodies are, — males 61 inches, females 

 55 inches. The mummy of the celebrated Cleopatra measures 

 54 inches ; the body is represented on the bottom of the coffin 

 about 4 feet 4 inches, which was possibly her true height, the 

 feet being extended as much as possible. This is about the 

 average height of an English girl of eleven. In some very 

 ancient mummies' coffins recently found in the Third Pyramid, 

 about 3000 B.C., a King Menkaura measured 52 inches ; a king 

 of Sixth Period measured 56 inches. That the Egyptian of the 

 period depicted was of average height to surrounding nations 

 may be inferred by sepulchral pamtmgs, where the Egyptian, 

 Negro, Jew, and other nations are represented of about equal 

 height, as seen in the painting over the doorway in the Egyptian 

 room of the British Museum. The same may be observed in 

 the Abyssinian monuments, where Egyptians and other nations 

 are represented of about equal height. By mference, the average 

 civilized man has increased in height not less than 6 inches 

 within 4000 years. 



As regards the form of the two sexes, it appears from Egyptian 

 and Grecian monuments that the waist of the two sexes was 

 equal in proportion to the general dimensions of the body. The 

 man's waist in the Egyptian monuments was comparatively 

 smaller, and the woman's waist larger than the modern, but no 

 doubt the modern female waist is much compressed below its 

 natural size by stays. The Venus di Medici is 36 inches, the 

 modern lady 28 inches. 



Absence of smooth hair on the body as a general feature. — We 

 may infer from early writers, Aristotle and others, that mfants 

 were very frequently born covered with hair. I think we may 



