40 ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND RACE>BIOLOGICAL RESEARCHES 



partly to have been this which influenced here in Sweden the eminent anatomist 

 Anders Retzius (1796—1860) and tempted him especially to make craniology the 

 object of a profound investigation. By means of the work Anders Retzius after* 

 / ( wards achieved in this field he has given anthropology a firm foundation, system* 



?i o( atized it and given it exact methods of investigation and study which have since 



been used in nearly all anthropological researches. 



There were 3 methods he chiefly employed, the mgtjical, the typological and 

 the hi^tojical. It was just these means that afterwards showed themselves to be 

 of such unprecedented importance in bearing fruit as regards anthropology, and 

 it is thanks to them that anthropology from the modest position it held, when 

 Anders Retzius began his work, has been capable of swinging itself up to the high 

 position and the imposing dimensions it takes now. 



Especially momentous and important were the means of help he gave to the 

 C study of anthropology by the introduction of the jndex=number, that is, the ex» 

 pression of the relation between certain dimensions of the skull by means of 

 numbers, for that has now become an indispensable means for the clearing up 

 and deciding objectiygly the^ distinguishing marks in the objects comj)ared. Anders 

 Retzius used iT first to make plain the difference in form, which the craniums 

 present when they are surveyed from a crown view. For this reason he measured 

 1) the greatest length, and 2) the greatest breadth of the cranium, and combined 

 these measurements in the following relation in numbers: — 



the greatest length : the greatest breadth = 100 : x. 

 By this means he gained the so=called length=breadth=index of the cranium and 

 thus won firm ground for their division, supported by which he carried out his 

 well'known classification of craniums into '^ 



longheads or dolichocephals 

 shortheads or brachycephals. 

 J I i/(Dolichocephals with an average index of 75 and brachycephals with one of 83.7.) 



^^- By the use of such an index»number it became possible for him to show in an 



objective manner the essential shape and differences in the structure of the skull, 

 which are to be found among nations and races, for example between the craniums 

 of the Swedes, Finns, and Lapps, as well as between those of Lapps and Esqui* 

 mos, etc. See his work: — »On the shape of the craniums of the Northern 

 peoples*, which lays the foundation for modern anthropology. 



He asserted in the meanwhile that both dolichocephals and brachycephals 

 ^/were to be found in all the continents with the exception of Africa, and the ex« 

 istence of intermediate forms was by no means unfamiliar to him, although he 

 did not as yet feel it necessary to place them in a special group. 



In his classification he combined also the shape of the cranium with that of the 

 jaws, and in this manner he created the welUknown system of dividing the human* 

 races as: 1) prognathous, and 2) orthognathous, i. e. with projecting and non* 

 projecting jaws, as sub*classes in both the dolichocephalic and brachycephalic groups. 



The system and the methods of study introduced by Anders Retzius, are 

 still the living principles in all anthropological research and continue to win a 

 more extended application, so that without exaggeration, it may be said, that he 

 is the creator of scientific anthropology as it is known at the present day. 



