586 CLASSIFICATION OF SKULLS. 



space between the eyebrows, nearly on the same plane with the cheek- 

 bones, the triangular space described by the lines (drawn on the wood- 

 cut) may be compared to one of the faces of a pyramid. The whole face, 

 instead of an oval form, as in most Europeans and many Africans, is of 

 a lozenge shape." 



" Another characteristic in most of the pyramidal skulls, or, rather, in 

 the form of the face to which this configuration of the skull gives rise, 

 is the apparently angular position of the aperture of the eyelids. There 

 is no want of parallelism in the orbits, or, rather, of coincidence in the 

 transverse sections of the orbital cavities. The obliquity consists in 

 the structure of the lids themselves ; the skin, being tightly drawn over 

 the large protuberance of the malar bone, under the outer angle of the 

 eye, and at the inner extremity smoothly extended over the lower nasal 

 bones, while the bridge of the nose is scarcely elevated above the plane 

 of the suborbital spaces, gives to the eye the appearance of being placed 

 with the inner angle downward." 



" The oval or elliptical form is that of Europeans, and the southern 

 Asiatics who resemble them ; the zygomatic bones and the jaws being 

 less protuberant, the entire outline of the head, viewed from above, has 

 no projecting angular parts, and is defined by an oval circumference. But 

 in that oval figure, or rather ellipse, the two diameters vary considera- 

 bly in proportion ; in other words, some nations have rounder, others more 

 elongated heads. The shape of the brain, and of the skull at its basis, 

 is in the rounder heads more like that of the pyramidal skull, or the 

 cranium of the northern Asiatics ; in the narrower heads it approaches 

 the figure of the elongated, or negro head." 



We may therefore conveniently classify skulls in three divisions : 



1st. The prognathous, which is represented in Fig. 293, being the 

 Classification skull O f a negro of very forbidding aspect. This form is 

 of skulls. marked by a forward projection of the jaws, the brain being 

 therefore, as it were, thrown backward as respects the face, the forehead 

 being more horizontal and low. 



2d. The pyramidal, Fig. 292, which gives rise, as has been stated 

 above, to the lozenge-shaped face. 



3d. The elliptical or oval, which, viewed from above, has an oval con- 

 tour without projecting parts, and in the profile shows a large facial an- 

 gle, as in the French skull, Fig. 294. 



These forms of skull seem to be connected very closely with habits 

 Connection of of life : the prognathous with the savage state, or that of 

 the skuTand ^ untm g > the pyramidal with a wandering pastoral life ; and 

 manner of life, the elliptical with that of civilization. 



With respect to the form of the pelvis in different nations, the varia- 

 tions are by no means so significant as in the case of the cranium, inas- 



