ANTHROPOLOGY. 



orthognathous(prthos, straight, gnathos, jaw). Prog- 

 nathism may be single or double. In the latter 

 case, the teeth in both upper and lower jaws jut 

 forward ; in the former, those in the upper jaw 

 only. Double prognathism is very rare. The 

 skulls of the Stone Age are more prognathous than 

 those of the present-day savages, in whom, as in 

 apes, prognathism increases as the development 

 of the individual goes on. Prognathism is the 

 exception in white races, though it is met with in 

 the more degraded portion of the population in 

 England, in the peasantry in Ireland, in the 

 women in Paris, and it is quite a prominent 

 feature in the Esthonians, by some anthropologists 

 held to be the remains of a primitive Mongolian 

 race that first peopled Europe. Professor Owen, 

 in his Anatomy of Vertebrates, ii. 566, says prog- 

 nathism is ' probably concomitant with late wean- 

 ing of the infant.' It is certainly true that Negro 

 mothers suckle their children longer than any 

 others. Bosnian, in his Description of the Coast 

 of Guinea, says they give their infants suck for 

 even two or three years. But it seems to us that 

 late weaning of this sort is a characteristic, not 

 of African savages, but of all aboriginal races, 

 whether prognathous or not. Amongst the North 

 American Indians, boys of four years of age may 

 be seen still unweaned. The late Captain C. F. 

 Hall, in his Life with the Esquimaux, says (ii. 93): 

 'As I stood gazing upon the scene before me, 

 Annawa's big boy was actually standing by his 

 mother and sucking at the breast, she all the time 

 continuing her work.' Yet we do not find well- 

 marked prognathism amongst the flat-faced races 

 of the arctic circle. 



The human skull is slow of ossification compared 

 with that of apes, and it is slowest in the highest 

 races. Quick ossification and straight linear 

 sutures indicate inferiority of race. The sutures 

 or dove-tailed joinings of the cranial bones remain 

 longest open in the higher races, because their 

 brains have a superior impetus of development 

 ab initio, and go on developing much longer than 

 they do in lower races. 



Stature and Proportions. 



Dolichocephaly is usually associated with high 

 stature, brachycephaly with the reverse. The 

 Celts of the past were a tall race. The natives of 

 Scandinavia in the reindeer age were a short 

 race. The Malays and the Mongols are brachy- 

 cephalic, and they are shorter than the northern 

 Europeans, and Negroes, who are rather dolicho- 

 cephalic. So we find the dolichocephalic gorilla 

 taller than the brachycephalic orang. The obser- 

 vations that have as yet been made on stature 

 have been trifling and limited. The old notions 

 of the gigantic height of the Patagonians are 

 overthrown by the extensive and accurate meas- 

 urements lately made by Musters and Cunning- 

 ham. The tallest Patagonian they could get was 

 only six feet four, and the average height was 

 five feet ten. The most dwarfish races seem 

 to be those at the extremities of great conti- 

 nents e. g. the Eskimos, Lapps, Tierra del 

 Fuegians, and Bushmen. The average height 

 of the Bushmen is variously stated Barrow de- 

 scribed it in one tribe as about four feet four. 

 The Negroes of the South Seas (Austral Negroes, 

 Negritos, &c.) are not much bigger being on an 

 average about four feet eight in height. The 



results of Broca's recent investigations as to the 

 proportions of Europeans and Negroes are (i) 

 the length of the upper, as compared with the 

 lower limb, is less in the Negro than European ; 

 (2) the length of the humerus or arm-bone, com- 

 pared with that of the radius or fore-arm bone, is 

 less in the Negro ; (3) that though the upper limb 

 of the Negro, by greater length of radius, approxi- 

 mated him more closely to the ape type, the com- 

 parative shortness of the humerus removed him 

 even further from that type than the European. 

 Mr David Forbes (Ethnological Society's Trans- 

 actions, 1870) shewed, from the results of sixty 

 measurements of typical specimens of the Negro, 

 European, and Aymara Indian, that the lower 

 extremities of the last are exactly one half the total 

 height ; whilst in the European and Negro they 

 were 522-thousandths and 54O-thousandths respec- 

 tively, or much more. The Aymara had the short- 

 est, the Negro the longest, arms of the three. The 

 leg is longest in the Aymara, and shortest in the 

 European; and the European foot was also the 

 shortest of the three. The chest in the Aymara 

 was the most voluminous, and least in the Negro. 

 The excessive length of the trunk in the Aymara 

 Indians may be due to their living in the high 

 table-lands of Bolivia and Peru, where the air is 

 so rarefied that it requires a much greater develop- 

 ment of lungs to take in the necessary amount 

 of oxygen. This saves them from suffering from 

 the oppressed breathing that affects the white 

 (Hispano-American) officers of the Bolivian troops 

 on the march, a symptom the privates (half-breeds 

 or pure Indians) do not manifest Recent ex- 

 plorers do not think the Negroes are under the 

 European average of stature ; but the Chinese are. 

 Dr Beddoe finds that the stature of the Scots is 

 highest of all the British people ; that of the Eng- 

 lish comes next ; and that of the Irish comes lowest 

 of all. Ouetelef s observations shewed that, be- 

 tween eighteen and twenty-three years of age, the 

 average stature of the English was higher than 

 that of the French. 



As in the case of animals, the temperate zone is 

 that in which, as a rule, the greatest bodily growth 

 occurs in the different races ; the same rule 

 may be held to apply to man. Wherever the 

 greatest quantity of the most nutritious food can 

 be got without over-exertion, the human body 

 will attain the greatest development ; for, as Milne 

 Edwards shewed (Elements de Zoologie, p. 254), 

 the size of the body depends essentially on nutrition. 

 Hence, the warmth and luxury of cities develop 

 rapidly the growth of all but the poorest classes. 



Weight and Strength. 



Regarding weight, the observations yet made 

 are also very trifling ; and as this and strength are 

 important elements in the calculations of military 

 leaders in the field, a comparative view of the 

 height, weight, and strength of different races 

 would be most valuable if it were got. Principal 

 Forbes of St Andrews, from observations made 

 on students, found, both as regards height and 

 weight, the Irish were first, the Scots second, the 

 English third, and the Belgians lowest of all. 



As regards strength, we may say, when t 

 capacity for great physical effort is a chara< 

 teristic of any race, it is usually associatec 

 with great digestive powers. Examples of vast 

 strength in individuals of all races are numerous 



