456 ETHNOLOGICAL TERMS OF ART. App. L 



noid, or to the palato-maxillary suture, is, perhaps, 

 regard being had to sex, as constant as any. The 

 part behind the cranial centrums is chiefly affected 

 by tlie super-occipital; the part in front by the 

 pre-maxillary. The extreme height, breadth, and 

 length of the cranium, with the curves and con- 

 tours of the dome, help the ethnologist with the 

 range of differences which it has pleased him to 

 express by the terras : brachycephalic, brassocephalic, 

 brachistocephalic, subbrachycephalic, mesocephalic, 

 mecocephalic, mecistocephalic, dolichocephalic, doli- 

 chistoceplialic, pyramidocephalic, coidocephalic, cym- 

 bocephalic, stenocephalic, eurycephalic, cylindroce- 

 phalic, hypsicephalic, orthoceplialic, phoxocephalic, 

 sphenoeephalic, platycephahc, sphosrocejohalic, cubi- 

 cephalic, &c., with the terminal varieties, as in brachy- 

 ce^h^lous and brachycepha(y, played upon each 

 compound ; to which add " pheenozygous," " crypto- 

 zygous," as the cranial dome may give or hide a view 

 of the z^'gomatic arclies ; also dolichorhinous, brachy- 

 rhinous, platyrhinous, or platyrhina/, &c., &c., for all 

 the gradations of diversity of the neural spines of 

 the foremost vertebra. 



There is no particular harm in such array or dis- 

 play of terms of art — save where they are extended 

 from signifying a gradation or variety of cranial 

 form to the constant character of a race, a nation, a 

 family, or a period — in the absence of that extent 

 and amount of observation which is absolutely requi- 

 site to prove or disprove such constancy. In the 

 extensive series of skulls of the natives of a limited 

 tract of the northern part of the peninsula of Hin- 



