THE HUMAN SPECIES. 189 



THE WOOLLY HAIRED TROPICAL TYPE * 



THE woolly haired, tropical, dark coloured stock, im- 

 properly called Atlantic and Ethiopia, is considered to 

 be most distinctly typical, where the maximum of de- 

 velopment is found, in the peculiarities of structure and 

 faculties that distinguish it from the other normal forms. 

 It is that which predominates in Central and Western 

 tropical Africa a form of Man of good stature, though 

 seldom attaining six feet in height, and falling as rarely 

 beneath five feet six; the facial angle varying from 

 65 to 70 degrees ; the head being small, laterally com- 

 pressed ; the dome of the skull arched and dense ; the 

 forehead narrow, depressed, and the posterior part more 

 developed ; the nose broad and crushed, with the nos- 

 trils round ; the lower jaw protruding, angular, but 

 more vertical in nonage ; the mouth wide, with very 

 thick lips, black to the commissure, which is red ; the 



* By this denomination is understood, not wool strictly 

 speaking, but hair so highly frizzled as to appear like the 

 wool of Iceland sheep ; and in coarseness so rude, that the 

 wool of a Negro head, struck with the knuckles, frequently 

 cuts the skin to the bone. The pile of the beard, &c., is 

 equally file-like or lacerating. These effects we have re- 

 peatedly witnessed. Though within the tropics no micro- 

 scopes of sufficient power were at hand to test the fact, the 

 general impression was, that this kind of hair is angular ; 

 and we doubt, that Dr. Pritchard's observations on the sub- 

 ject are wholly satisfactory; the less so, since the hair of 

 the head seems to have been exclusively examined, in all the 

 researches we have been able to consult. 



