CAMPER'S FACIAL LINE AND ANGLE. 333 



oblongata and medulla spinalis; although to this position there are 

 perhaps fewer objections than to the others. None of them, it is ob- 

 vious, are distinctive between man and animals, or assist us in solving 

 the great problem of the source and seat of the numerous psychological 

 differences we observe. 



Various plans have been devised for appreciating the comparative 

 size of the cranium, which is generally in a ratio with that of the brain, 

 and of the bones of the face. As the former contains the organ of 

 the intellect, and the latter those of the external senses and of mastica- 

 tion, it has been presumed, that the excess of the former would indicate 

 the predominance of thought over sense; and, conversely, that the 

 greater developement of the face would place the animal lower in the 

 scale. 



One of these methods, first proposed by Camper, 1 is by taking the 

 course of the facial line, and the amount of the facial angle. The 

 facial line is a line drawn from the projecting part of the forehead to 

 the alveoli of the incisor teeth of the upper jaw; the facial angle is 

 that formed between this line and another drawn horizontally backwards 

 from the upper jaw. The course of the horizontal line and its point of 

 union with the facial line are not uniform in all the figures given by 

 Camper : sometimes, it is made to pass through the meatus auditorius 

 externus; but it often falls far below it; yet Dr. Bostock thinks 2 "we 

 cannot hesitate to admit the correctness of Camper's observations, and 

 we can scarcely refuse our assent to the conclusion that he deduces from 

 them." In man, whose face is' situate perpendicularly under the cra- 

 nium,, the facial angle is very large. In animals, the face is placed in 

 front of the cranium ; and as we descend from man the angle becomes 

 less and less, until it is finally lost ; the cranium and face bejng in most 

 reptiles and fish on a level. The marginal 

 figure (Fig. 134) exhibits the difference be- Fig. 135. 



tween the facial angle of those of European 

 descent, and that of the negro. By covering 

 with the finger the parts below the nose al- 

 ternately, we have the countenance of the 

 white, and negro, in which the facial angle 

 differs as much as 10, or 15. Fig. 135 

 exhibits the facial line and angle of the 

 ourang-outang. Animals that have the 

 snout long, and the facial angle consequently 

 small, have been proverbially esteemed fool- 

 ish, 3 such are the snipe, stork, crane, &c. r 

 whilst superior intelligence has been ascribed 

 to those in which the angle is more largely 

 developed, as the elephant and the owl; 

 although in them, the large facial angle is _ 

 caused by the size of the frontal sinusts, or * 1L -e and Angle oft 



1 Dissertation Physique de M. Camper, sur les Differences Reelles que presentent les 

 Traits du Visage, &c., traduit du Hollandois, par D. B. Q. Disjonval, Autrecht, 1791. 



2 Physiology, 3d edit., p. 804, Lond., 1836. 

 8 Lawrence, op. citat., p. 168. 



