ETHIOPIAN VARIETY. 309 



stronger, and more capacious in the Negro ; the cheek-bones 

 project remarkably, and are very strong, broad, and thick : 

 hence they afford space for the attachment of powerful mas- 

 seters. 



The orbits, and particularly their external apertures, are 

 capacious. 



Both entrances to the nose are more ample, the cavity it- 

 self considerably more capacious, the plates and windings of 

 the ethmoid bone more complicated, the cribriform lamella 

 more extensive, than in the European. The ossa nasi are 

 flat and short, instead of forming the bridge-like convexity 

 which we see in the European. They run together above 

 into an acute angle, which makes them considerably resem- 

 ble the single triangular nasal bone of the monkey. In the 

 Negro skull, in Mr. Abernethy's collection, before referred 

 to, they are nearly consolidated together in their whole length. 



The superior maxillary bone is remarkably prolonged in 

 front : its alveolar portion and the included incisor teeth are 

 oblique, instead of being perpendicular, as in the European. 



The nasal spine at the entrance of the nose is either in- 

 considerable or entirely deficient. The palatine arch is 

 longer and more elliptical. The alveolar edge of the lower 

 jaw stands forward, like that of the upper ; and this part in 

 both is narrow, elongated, and elliptical. The chin, instead 

 of projecting equally with the teeth, as it does in the Euro- 

 pean, recedes considerably, like that of the monkey. 



The preceding description of the Negro cranium must be 

 taken in a general sense, with an allowance for exceptions 

 and individual modifications : it is drawn from strongly- 

 marked examples, and cannot therefore be received as uni- 

 versally and strictly applicable. We seldom meet with in- 

 stances in which the animal character is so strongly pour- 

 trayed as in this subject. The depression, narrowness, and 

 flatness of the forehead, the great size and projection of the 

 jaws, are carried here to an extraordinary and very striking 

 degree. Travellers inform us that several Africans differ 

 from the European formation in little more than colour; so 

 that the peculiar construction of the head, on the faith of 



