288 FORMS OF THE SKULL. 



checks and jaws are compressed laterally, and elongated in 

 front. In the Tungoose, on the contrary, the maxillary, 

 malar, and nasal bones are widely expanded on either side ; 

 and the two latter are on the same horizontal level with the 

 glabella =^; the forehead being still low and slanting. 



In the first, or white variety of man, to which Blumen- 

 BACH has given the epithet Caucasian, — including the an- 

 cient and modern inhabitants of Europe, the western Asia- 

 tics, or those on this side of the Caspian Sea, the rivers Ob 

 and Ganges, and the northern Africans ; in a word, nearly 

 all the inhabitants of the world as known to the ancients — 

 the skull presents the finest intellectual organization ; pro- 

 portions indicating the greatest predominance of the rational 

 faculties over the instruments of sense and of the common 

 animal wants. The upper and front parts of the skull are 

 more developed than in any other variety ; and their ample 

 swell completely hides the face when we survey the head 

 according to the norma verticalis. The facial line must, 

 therefore, be nearly vertical ; and the facial angle nearly a 

 right angle. The face is comparatively small, and its out- 

 lines rounded, without any thing harsh or unpleasantly pro- 

 minent. The cheek-bones are small, and do not stand out, 

 but descend in a nearly straight line from the external an- 

 gular process of the frontal bone. The alveolar margin 

 of the jaws is rounded ; and the front teeth are perpen- 

 dicular in both. The chin is full and prominent. 



Since this conformation is exhibited in the various nations 

 of Europe, its leading traits must be familiar. As a speci- 

 men, I refer to the skull of a Georgian f woman in the 

 third decade of Blumenbach's work, because it comes 

 from a quarter near the supposed original seat of our race, 

 and from a tribe celebrated for personal beauty. From the 

 elegance and symmetry of its formation, it may be regarded 



* The space between the frontal sinuses. 



+ Decas Tertia; No. x\i. The representations in the Tabulee Scehti et 

 Musculorum Hominis^ and in the Tab. Ossiuni Ilumanorum of ALnnvus, 

 also exemplify the characters of this variety. 



