Ill VARIATIONS: HUMAN SKULL 101 



these two skulls will suffice to prove that they 

 differ, in another respect, to a very striking extent. 

 The profile of the face of the Calmuck is almost 

 vertical, the facial bones being thrown downwards 

 and under the fore part of the skull. The 

 profile of the face of the Negro, on the other hand, 

 is singularly inclined, the front part of the jaws 

 projecting far forward beyond the level of the fore 

 part of the skull. In the former case the skull is 

 'said to be " ortliognathous " or straight-jawed ; in 

 the latter, it is called "prognathous" a term which 

 has been rendered, with more force than elegance, 

 by the Saxon equivalent, "snouty." 



Various methods have been devised in order to 

 express with some accuracy the degree of prog- 

 nathism or orthognathism of any given skull; 

 most of these methods being essentially modifica- 

 tions of that devised by Peter Camper, in order to 

 attain what he called the " facial angle.'* 



But a little consideration will show that any 

 " facial angle " that has been devised, can be com- 

 petent to express the structural modifications 

 involved in prognathism and orthognathism, only 

 in a rough and general sort of way. For the 

 lines, the intersection of which forms the facial 

 angle, are drawn through points of the skull, the 

 position of each of which is modified by a number 

 of circumstances, so that the angle obtained is a 

 complex resultant of all these circumstances, and 

 is not the expression of any one definite organic 

 relation of the parts of the skull. 



