58 THE HUMAN SPECIES 



where the diameters are almost equal. Now, as each naturalist 

 adopted his own method of measurement the results were 

 very conflicting and unreliable, until the agreement l on crani- 

 ometry was drawn up at Frankfort, whereby the German 

 level was adopted as a basis for future measurements. The 

 level is determined by two straight lines passing through the 

 lowest point in the lower rim of the orbit, and through a point 

 in the upper side of the bony auditory orifice perpendicular to the 

 middle of the cavity of the ear (see Fig. 15). Taking this level 

 as a basis, measurements are made of the diameter, the entire 

 height, the maximum breadth, breadth of the brow, angle of 

 inclination of the occipital foramen, angle of the profile, etc. 



As we have seen in Part I., two distinct races of man 

 have existed from the most remote times, a dolichocephalous 

 and a brachycephalous, and the intercrossing of these two 

 races in the course of ages has resulted in a third, a meso- 

 cephalous. It must not be supposed, however, that this 

 quality is peculiar to man, for the wild horse of the Palaeolithic 

 Age was divided into two races ; one small, short and broad- 

 headed, the other larger with a long narrow head ; the same dis- 

 tinction is found among the half-wild, half-domesticated cattle of 

 the neolithic pile-dwellers. 



Proceeding to the face we take first the orbits which belong 

 partly thereto. The lower we descend in the scale of the verte- 

 brates, the more laterally placed are the orbits and the less 

 clearly are they distinguished from the temporal cavities. In 

 man and also in the apes and anthropoids the orbits are situated 

 in the front of the face and are completely closed. The laminae 

 papyraceae which in man aid in forming the orbit are found 

 otherwise only in the apes and in certain armadillos. In 

 the gorilla and chimpanzee, it is true, the orbits are tubular and 

 prominent, but this need not be regarded as an absolute 

 contrast to the conditions of things in man, for the orang also 

 does not possess this bony orbital tube. 



In certain apes, and other mammals, the upper jaw-bone con- 

 sists of two parts. Now, although in adult man the same bone 

 is generally not so divided as in the two-month-old embryo, 

 the division is found and not seldom remains throughout life, 



l Corr.-Blatt.f. Anthrop., etc., 1883, vol. i., p. i. 



