THE FACE. 173 



lower part of the os frontis, from an increased capaciousness 

 of the sinuses, will make the facial angle appear less acute. 

 The absorption of the alveolar processes, after the loss of the 

 teeth, will produce the same result in our measurements of the 

 facial angle. The heads of infants, previously to the appear- 

 ance and full growth of the teeth, have always the facial angle 

 less acute than the heads of adults: in some cases an angle of 

 ninety degrees is presented in them. On the contrary, a growth 

 of teeth, and consequently of the alveolar processes, dispropor- 

 tionate to the size of the body of the upper jaw, will cause the 

 facial angle to project very considerably even in an individual 

 of the Caucasian race. Similar objections may be brought 

 against the indications of the inferior line. The fair state of 

 this argument appears then to be, that the doctrine of the facial 

 angle, though correct in a majority of instances, has numerous 

 exceptions from individual peculiarities, and that there is no 

 race of human beings which does not present the facial angle 

 in all its ranges from seventy to ninety degrees, 



With the view to meet such objections and establish a rule 

 of more uniformity, M. Cuvier has proposed to ascertain re- 

 sults from a vertical section, by which it appears that the Cau- 

 casian cranium is four times the area of the face; whereas in 

 the negro the face is a fifth larger in proportion. 



In regard to the various configurations of the human face 

 and stature, depending upon habits and circumstances conti- 

 nued through a long succession of ages and generations, the 

 following views of one,* pre-eminently qualified to judge, will 

 not be uninstructive. 



" Although there appears to be but one human species, since 

 all its individuals can couple promiscuously, so as to produce a 

 prolific offspring, we yet remark in it certain hereditary con- 

 formations, which constitute what arc called races. Of them 

 there are three which are eminently distinct in appearance: 

 they are, the white or Caucasian; the yellow or Mongolian; 

 the negro or Ethiopian. 



* Rcgne Animal, par M. Ic Chcv. Cuvier, torn, 1, p, 94. Pari^ 1817, 



