588 PROGNATHOUS AND ELLIPTICAL SKULLS. 



and plenty, the converse effects may take place. Of this, perhaps the 

 its rectification most striking illustration is that pointed out by Dr. Prichard 

 by luxury. of the loss of the pyramidal form of skull by the European 

 Turks, a form which appertained to their Asiatic ancestors, and the as- 

 sumption of the elliptical, the skull not of a wandering, but of a station- 

 ary and civilized race. Nor has this transmutation taken place in them, 

 in the short period since they made their European conquest, because of 

 the influence exercised by the Circassian and Georgian women intro- 

 duced into their harems, for this has been upon too small a scale to pro- 

 duce such a general result, and is a luxury which can only be indulged 

 in by the wealthier classes. 



As a descent is made to the skull of the prognathous form, the coun- 

 Contrast be- tenance loses those features which we regard as being beau- 

 nlt e hous h and e t tiful and assumes a baser cast. When it has reached the 

 liptical skulls. limit in that direction, it is actually hideous, recalling at 

 once the detestable aspect of the ape. In this state, in the tropical cli- 

 mates, the lips are thick, the hair woolly, the nostrils gaping. The in- 

 tellectual powers are correspondingly depressed ; the dullness of the eye, 

 its porcelain-like sclerotic contrasting with the blackness of the skin, is 

 in correspondence with the low and degraded mental power. On the 

 contrary, when the passage is made toward the elliptical form, the coun- 

 tenance becomes more beautiful and interesting, capable of expressing the 

 most refined mental emotions. The eyes, in an indescribable but sig- 

 nificant manner, manifest the exalted powers of the mind, and the lips 

 are composed or compressed. 



If I am not mistaken, darkness of the skin and a prognathous form of 

 Mode in which skull may be dependent in the dark tribes on the same cir- 

 dark P comp C iex- cumstance. Functionally the liver is in connection with the 

 in. calorifacient apparatus, its secretion, the bile, as shown in 



Chapter XL, coinciding in habitudes with a hydrocarbon. Much of it 

 is therefore reabsorbed, and eventually devoted for the support of a high 

 temperature. But, besides this combustible material, the bile likewise 

 contains a coloring matter, which is in all respects an effete body, and 

 useless to the system. This pigment is derived from the blood-discs, 

 or, rather, from their hasmatin, as is proved by the fact that it occurs in 

 the meconium of the new-born infant, and likewise, like hgematin, it is 

 rich in iron. Its source is, therefore, not immediately from the food. 

 To remove this useless material is thus one of the primary functions of 

 the liver. 



Now there is no organ which is more quickly disturbed in its duty by 

 Influence of the a high temperature than the liver. Whether such a high 

 the 6 temperature produces its effect through a disturbance of the 



complexion. action of the lungs, or through an impression on the skin, is 



