Vice-President' s Address. 23 



character among civilised men, but it presents all grades of 

 transition through the lower to the higher races. Two 

 characters of the hard palate have not yet been fully recorded, 

 viz., (1) the exact character of its arch, to the height of which 

 considerable attention is paid in connection with the study 

 of insanity; and (2) the distance between the foramen mag- 

 num and the hiijder border of the hard palate. It would be 

 of much interest to know whether, with a diminishing 

 prognathism and shoitening upper jaw, there was also a 

 proportionate reduction in the antero-posterior diameter of 

 the naso-pharynx. 



Passing now to the cranium, or box which contains the 

 brain, we note that, so far as its capacity and diameters, etc., 

 are concerned, the cranium is directly under the influence of 

 the contained brain. This influence has affected the height, 

 width, and length of the cranial box without great disturb- 

 ance of that part of the floor situated above the nose, orbits, 

 and pharynx. The most remarkable feature is that great 

 increase in length has been obtained by a backward growth 

 of the cranium behind the foramen magnum. This has in- 

 fluenced the balance of the skull upon the spinal column, 

 and relatively changed the position of the occipital condyles 

 to the antero-posterior diameter of the skull. 



Measurements of the cranial box, obtained by tape-line or 

 by calipers, as also the measurement of its cubic capacity, 

 provide facts invaluable and indispensable for the purposes 

 of skull classification. It is not quite clear that, from these 

 facts, we can arrange skulls in an evolutionary sequence, 

 although we can determine two fundamental types of skull, 

 viz., the dolicho-cephalic and the brachy-cephalic. Out of 

 the two foregoing an intermediate group is usually struck, 

 viz., the mesati-cephalic, but of course the affinities of this 

 group are either towards the one or the other of the extreme 

 forms. So far as mammals other than man are concerned, 

 their skulls are dolicho-cephalic, and this form characterises 

 some of the lowest of the primitive human races. 



Evidence is still wanting, however, to prove that brachy- 

 cephalic skulls have been evolved from dolicho-cephalic 

 ancestors, for it may be that the two types have arisen separ- 



