NATURAL HISTORY OP MAN. 487 



some such is required for the elucidation of the subject. 

 Under the view we entertain that the distinctions of cranial 

 form (endlessly multiplied in their varieties, both in races 

 and individuals), are secondary and derived from a common 

 source, we can attach no higher importance than this to the 

 classifications proposed. Our present knowledge enables us to 

 follow these more strongly marked types into each other 

 through all the intermediate links. We can even go farther, 

 and affirm that some of the changes in question are taking 

 place under our own eyes. The Turks of Europe and West- 

 ern Asia are doubtless of the same stem as the Turks of 

 Central Asia ; yet they have gained, probably within a few 

 centuries, the cranial form and facial features of the Cauca- 

 sian races; while those retaining their original seat and 

 manner of life retain also the pyramidal skull and Mongolian 

 characters of the race. The Laplanders, Finns, and Magyars, 

 all derived, as we have reason to believe, from the 

 Mongolian stock present three gradations of change from 

 the pyramidal to the elliptical type, and bearing propor- 

 tion to the degree of civilisation attained by each. Again, 

 we have various testimony that the Negro head, so strongly 

 marked in its characters, is gradually coming nearer to the 

 European form, where successive generations of Negroes, 

 without any actual intermixture, have lived in constant com- 

 munication with this higher race. 



As a particular feature of the cranium, the facial angle 

 (determining the relation of the line of the forehead to that 

 of the face), is a subject of interest even to the most common 

 observers, in its seeming connection with the intellectual 

 developement and expression. Its great diversity in different 

 individuals is well known ; and the same variation, within 

 certain limits, extends to different races. Naturalists have 

 busied themselves in giving exact measurement to this angle 

 both in man and the inferior animals; and with results 



