CHAPTER V. 



Varieties in Figure, Proportions, and Strength. — The Ears — 

 Effects of Art upon them, and on other Parts of the Body. — Tlie 

 Mammce. — Organs of Generation. — Fabulous Varieties. 



In consequence of the foramen magnum bein^ placed 

 further back in the head of tlie Negro than in that of the 

 European (see p. 307), and of the head being consequently 

 situated more forwards on the vertebral column in the for- 

 mer than in the latter, the occiput of the Negro projects 

 less behind the spine. Hence a line drawn from the pos- 

 terior extremity of the skull alone: the nape of the neck, 

 which dips in considerably under the head in the European, 

 is nearly straight in the African, as if a part of the cranium 

 had been sliced off. The hind head is still further reduced 

 in the monkey kind. 



Artists have taken great pains to determine the propor- 

 tions which the parts of the human body, the head, neck, 

 trunk, and limbs, bear to each other ; and to discover the 

 relative magnitudes of these, which ought to be found in 

 the best constructed frame ; in short, to fix a standard of 

 perfection, or the model of beauty. If only one kind of form, 

 and one set of proportions were consistent with strength 

 and activity, it would be worth while to pay some attention 

 to these laborious efforts of painters and sculptors, at esta- 

 blishing how many times the length of the head is con- 

 tained in the whole body, in the trunk, the upper or lower 

 limbs ; how many noses are in the head, &c. &c. Even 

 then, the strange method they have adopted, of measuring 

 certain celebrated statues, seems as little likely to accomplish 

 the professed object of instructing us in natural proportions, 

 as the academic exercises of drawing old painted casts are 



