1694: THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



rated men from apes, and carrion birds from other 

 birds. But its application to different varieties of 

 men, as a measure of their various degrees of intel- 

 ligence, was a pretension doomed to be sacrificed 

 to future investigations. Dr. Jacquart, assistant natu- 

 ralist in the Museum of Natural History at Paris, 

 calling to his aid an instrument he invented, by 

 which the facial angle is rapidly measured, has, in 

 our day, made numerous studies of the facial angle of 

 human beings. M. Jacquart found that this angle 

 can not be taken as a measure of intelligence, for he 

 observed it to be a right angle in individuals who, 

 with respect to intelligence, were in no way superior 

 to others whose facial angle was much smaller. 



Erect carriage is another of the characteristics 

 which distinguish the human species from all other 

 animals, including the ape, by whom this position is 

 but rarely assumed, and then accidentally and un- 

 naturally. 



Everything in the human skeleton is calculated to 

 ensure a vertical posture. In the first place, the head 

 articulates with the vertebral column at a point so 

 situated that, when this vertebral column is erect, 

 the head, by means of its own weight, remains sup- 

 ported in equilibrium. Besides this, the shape of the 

 head, the direction of the face, the position of the 

 eye, and the form of the nostrils all require that man 

 should walk erect on two feet. 



J. J. Rousseau was, therefore, very far from right 

 when he contended that man was born to go on all 

 fours. 



