CAMPER'S FACIAL LINE AND ANGLE. 335 



the head. The ancients were impressed with the intellectual air exhi- 

 bited by the open facial angle; for we find in all their statues of legis- 

 lators, sages, and poets, an angle of at least 90, and in those of heroes 

 and superhuman natures it is as high as 100. This angle, according 

 to Camper, never existed in nature; and yet he conceives it to be the 

 beau ideal of the human countenance, and to have been the ancient 

 model of beauty. It was, more probably, the model of superior intel- 

 lectual endowment, although ideas of beauty might have been connected 

 with it. Every nation forms its notions of beauty, derived from this 

 source, chiefly from the facial angle to which it is accustomed. With 

 the Greeks it was large, and therefore the vertical facial line was highly 

 estimated. For the same reason, it is pleasing to us; but such would 

 not be the universal impression. Savage tribes on our own continent, 

 have preferred the pyramidal shape of the head, and made use of every 

 endeavour, by unnatural compression in early infancy, to produce it; 

 whilst others, not satisfied with the natural shape of the frontal bone, 

 have forced back the forehead, either by applying a flat piece of board 

 to it, like the Indians of our own continent, or by iron plates, like the 

 inhabitants of Arracan. By this practice the Caraibs are said to be 

 able to see over their heads. 



M. Daubenton, 1 again, endeavoured, by taking the occipital line and 

 angle, to measure the differences between the skulls of man and ani- 

 mals. A line is drawn from the posterior margin of the foramen 

 magnum of the occipital bone to the inferior margin of the orbit, and 

 another from the top of the head to the space between the occipital 

 condyles. In man, these condyles, as well as the foramen magnum, 

 are so situate, that a line drawn perpendicular to them will be a con- 

 tinuation of the vertebral column; but in animals they are placed more 

 or less obliquely; the perpendicular will, therefore, necessarily be thrown 

 farther forward, and the angle be rendered more acute. 2 Blumenbach 

 says, that Daubenton's method maybe adapted to measure the degrees 

 of comparison betwixt man and brutes, but not varieties of national 

 character; for he found it even different in the skulls of two Turks, 

 and three Ethiopians. The methods of Camper and Daubenton com- 

 bined, were, also, insufficient to indicate the varieties in national and 

 individual character. He accordingly describes a new method, which 

 he calls norma verticalis. 3 It consists in selecting two bones ; the frontal 

 from those of the cranium, and the superior maxillary from those of 

 the face; comparing these with each other, by regarding them verti- 

 cally, placing the great convexity of the cranium directly before him, 

 and marking the relative projections of the maxillary bone beyond the 

 arch of the forehead. The Asiatic Georgian is found to be. character- 

 ized by the great expanse of the upper and outer part of the cranium, 



1 Memoires de 1'Academie des Sciences de Paris, p. 568, Paris, 1764. 



3 By some writers, Daubenton's method is said to consist of " a line drawn from the pos- 

 terior margin of the occipital foramen to the inferior margin of the orbit; and another drawn 

 horizontally through the condyles of the occipital bone." It is obvious, that little or no com- 

 parative judgment of the cranium and face could be formed from this. 



3 Decad. Collections suae Craniorum diversarum Gentium ; and De Gener. Human. Var. 

 Nativ., edit. 3a, Getting., 1795. 



