PERSONAL APPEARANCES IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. 23 



In infancy the head is large in proportion to the chest, 

 and the bones of the cranium are not fully ossified, but 

 are separated from one another by membrane, which, 

 between the frontal and parietal bones, and between the 

 latter and the occipital, leaves a considerable interval. 

 Then the face is small in proportion to the cranium, and 

 the lower jaw, instead of having an angle at its pos- 

 terior extremity, which in the adult is F * 

 almost a right angle, is nearly horizontal 

 (Fig. 5). The skeleton is incompletely 

 ossified, the muscles small and ill- 

 developed, the contour of the body 

 being chiefly made up by the excessive 

 fatty layer which underlies the skin. 

 The neck is short; the chest prominent, narrow, and 

 short ; and the abdomen large and capacious, whilst the 

 spine is nearly straight, and the lower limbs propor- 

 tionately short. In youth the chief change lies in the 

 greater development of the lower limbs, the greater 

 proportional increase in the size of the chest, and cor- 

 responding diminution of the head and abdomen. The 

 spine now forms a double curve. In adult life, when 

 all the skeleton is firmly ossified, trie jaw is square, its 

 angle almost a right angle (Fig. 2), the chest fully ex- 

 panded, the lower limbs well developed. In old age the 

 * Skull of infant. 



