38 



LABORATORY MANUAL OF ANTHROPOMETRY 



called the "French horizontal" (Fig. 20). This takes as the three points 

 for the establishment of the plane the alveolar point of Cloquet, and, 

 instead of the meatuses, the lower point of the occipital condyles, 

 that is, the point upon which these parts would naturally rest. This 

 is not far from the natural position of a skull deprived of mandible, when 

 laid on the table, and is approximately parallel to the plane of the optical 

 axes of the two eyes when looking straight forward. 



Quite within the present generation another, and, we hope, final 

 horizontal has been established, which has come into almost universal 

 use, although there is still among the French a liking for the alveolo- 



H 



FIG. 20. Skull placed upon the alveo-condylar plane of Broca (1862). 



condylar plane of Broca. This is the plane established by the Interna- 

 tional Anthropological Association at a meeting at Frankfort-on-Main, 

 and hence known as the " Frankfort Horizontal " (Fig. 21). * This, unlike 

 the preceding, rests upon four points: the highest point in the margins 

 of the two meatuses, and the lowest points in the margins of the two 

 orbits. This has the one disadvantage of resting upon four points 

 instead of three, so that, unless a skull is perfectly symmetrical, and few 

 are, the plane has to be a sort of concession or approximation, but has 



* The Frankfort Horizontal was first proposed at the meeting of the Craniometric 

 Congress held at Munich in 1877; it was later ratified at the International Congress of 

 Anthropologists at their meeting at Frankfort a/M, in 1884, hence the name. 



Cf. ECKER u. His: Ueber die Horizontalebene des menschlichen Schadels. 

 Archiv. f. Anthropol., Bd. 9. 1877, pp. 271 +. 



GOLDSTEIN: Le plan horizontal du crane. Rev. anthropol., 1884. Series 2. T. 7. 

 pp. 680 +. 



GARSON, J. G.: The Frankfort Craniometric Agreement, with critical remarks 

 thereon. Journ. Anthropol. Inst., London. Vol. 14, pp. 64+. 



