514 



NATURE 



[February 15, 1912 



In order to isolate differences of form from differences 

 of general magnitude, I have reduced all measurements to 

 the scale of a standard vertical height, of loo mm., with 

 the following result : — 



Hcrizont.-*! dimensions of the transverse cranial section, reduced to a 

 cominon vertical height. 



A, English (17th century); R, Cro-magnon ; C, IJvinft English; D, 

 Egyptian ; E, Guanche ; K, E-kimo ;. G, Congo Negro (Fernando Vas, 

 1864) ; H, Congo Negro (Batetelu). 



Lastly, we may write any of these in terms of per- 

 centages of any other ; and so, for instance, we may take 

 the seventeenth-century English skull as our type, and 

 translate the data for all the rest into percentage propor- 

 tions thereof, as follows : — 



or more flattened above; but the differences are obvi 

 not nearly so great as, for instance, those between 

 English skull and the Eskimo or the Cro-magnon. At thi 

 same time, the differences between the Egyptian and th< 



V 



u 



Mean ... 100 97-1 97-5 99-6 987 91.7 95-2 98-9 



Relative horizontal dimensions of the transverse cranial section. 



A, English (17th century) ; B, Cro-magnon ; C, Living English ; D, 

 Egyptian ; E. Guanche ; F, Eskimo ; G, Congo (Fernando Vas) ; H, Congo 

 (Batetelu). 



When these numbers are translated into curves (plotting 

 heights vertically and percentage-breadths horizontally), 

 then, I think, they show us in a striking way the nature 

 and degree of such differences as exist between the several 

 type-contours. The contour of our standard of coinparison 

 (seventeenth-century English) is now represented by a 

 vertical straight line, and all the others by appropriate 

 curves. It is obvious that if a skull differ from the 

 standard in some simple way, as, for instance, by greater 

 or less breadth, uniformly distributed, its curve will 

 approximate to the form of a straight line parallel to the 

 vertical ; if the tendency to broaden or to narrow increase 

 from below upwards, then the curve will be more or less 

 of a straight line set at an angle to the vertical ; while if 

 the changes are more complicated or irregular, then the 

 new curve will be more or less sinuous. Indeed, the 

 sinuosity of the curve will be a rough measure of the 

 fundamental differences in form between it and the standard 

 of comparison. 



As my object here is to illustrate a method rather than 

 the results derived from it, 1 will deal very briefly with 

 the curves shown in the following figures. 



In Fig. 2 the sinuosity of the Cro-magnon curve (i) 

 indicates striking differences from the standard in the 

 essential form of its contour ; it is much narrower below, 

 in the auricular region, then gets broader, and, finally, it 

 is sharply constricted near the apex. The Guanche skull 

 (2) is nearest to the Englishman's, but is narrower above. 

 The Negro (Fernando Vas) (3) is everywhere narrower, 

 and its curvature has a trend similar to that of the 

 Guanche. The Eskimo (4), broad below, narrows to a 

 great degree in the apical region. 



In Fig. 3 we compare with the seventeenth-century 

 Englishman (6) the living Englishman (Royal Engineers) 

 and (5) the Egyptian. The latter, by its somewhat greater 

 sinuosity, shows a greater difference than the former, it 

 being narrow in the lower half of the section and broader 

 NO. 2207, VOL. 881 



UD 



100 



90 



Fic. 2. 



80 



sl 6 



English skulls are opposite in character to all those illusj 

 trated in the former figure. 



In the next figure (4) we compare (i) the tran? 

 contour of the livmg Englishman with the Englishm: 



V 



11 



10 



3 

 2 



90 *"0 



110 



100 



Fig. 3. 



100 

 Fic. 4- 



the seventeenth centun,', ?nd (2) two Congo tribes one witt 

 another. (The curves in this instance have been slightl) 

 smoothed.) Save for a slight accentuation of apparent 

 differences in the immediate neighbourhood of the apex. 



