310 FORMS OF THE SKULL. 



which some would class these people as a distinct species, 

 is by no means a constant character. 



This diversity of form is abundantly proved by delinea- 

 tions of Africans executed by the best artists ; and is well 

 illustrated by the engravings which Blumenbach has pub- 

 lished of six African heads *, all differing from eacb other, 

 and exhibiting as much variety as we see in Europeans. 

 They vary considerably in the developement and prominence 

 of the forehead, in the size and arching of the nasal bones, 

 in the projection of the jaws and teeth, the formation of the 

 chin, and in other points ; and fully justify his conclusion, 

 " genuinos iEthiopes, si craniorum formam spectes, non 

 minus certe, imo vero magis passim inter seipsos ab invlccm 

 difFcrre, quam nonnulli eorum a multorum Europseorum 

 capitis forma diiferunt f." 



The tribes in the south of Africa, that is, near the European 

 colony at the Cape — the Hottentots, Kafifers, Bosjesmen, &c» 

 are not yet enough known to enable us to decide whether 

 they ought to be arranged under the Ethiopian variety, or 

 whether they belong to a different type. Blumenbach has 

 figured and described a skull in his last decade X : and more 

 recently, Cuvier has published an account of a female head. 

 In some points these two specimens differ from each other 

 remarkably. 



In the male Bosjesman's head represented by Blumen- 

 bach, the cranium is less compressed than in the Negro, 

 The orbits and cheek-bones are wide, the jaws not at all pro- 

 minent, the incisor teeth with their alveoli and chin in the 

 same perpendicular line. The latter is remarkably narrow 

 and sharp. The nasal bones are very small, and nearly 

 in the same plane with the nasal processes of the superior 

 maxillse. 



" The bony head of our female Bosjesman," says Cu vier^ 

 " presented a striking combination of the traits of the Negro 

 with those of the Calmuck. In the Negro, the mouth is pro- 

 minent, the face and cranium compressed laterally : in the 



* Dec. prima; tab. 6, 7, 8. Dec. altera; tab. 17, 18, 19. 

 i Dec. altera; p. 13- X ^^'^' ?"iw«a ; tab. 45. 



