THE SKELETON 61 



with strong, over-arching, superciliary ridges. This may be 

 carried so far that the fronto-nasal suture may lie almost on 

 a level with the centre of the orbit, whereas, as a rule, it lies 

 much higher. The arrangement manifestly involves the frontal 

 in a far greater share of the orbital wall than is the case with 

 Europeans ; and, correlatively, the os planum is in this race some- 

 what more than 2 mm. narrower than that of the European. 



The bridge of the nose in the Yeddahs is not nearly so high 

 as in Europeans, i.e. it remains sunk between the orbits. In 

 other words, the two nasal bones do not slope outwards against 

 one another as they do in Europeans (in profile, they together 



FIG. 41. THE SKULL OF A NEGRO EUNUCH, in which the process of the alisphenoid 

 (cf. Figv 40) is represented by a distinct bone the epipteric (f). 



describe a curve slightly concave anteriorly), and this, in life, 

 results in a flat nose. This condition is palingenetically repro- 

 duced in the European child, and finds its expression in the 

 flatness of the nose, the bridge developing only in later years. 

 The choanae of the Veddah's skull are, on an average, half a 

 centimetre lower than in the European. 



Turning now to the facial portion of the skull the upper 

 jaw first claims attention. That portion of it which carries the 

 incisors is particularly interesting, because Ontogeny teaches that 

 it was originally a sejmrate^ bone, homologous with the gre^ or 

 intermaxillary of the lower Vertebrata. This bone is an inherit- 

 ance which reappears with the greatest constancy from the bony 

 Fishes upwards throughout the Vertebrata ; but whereas in by far 

 the greater number of these the premaxillary remains an 

 independent bone, in Primates it early fuses with the adjacent 

 elements of the upper jaw to form one mass. In Man this fusion 



