48 



INTRODUCTION. 



originally proposed by Camper. The mode of ascertaining this angle is, 

 by drawing a line from the most prominent part of the forehead to the 

 edge of the upper incisors, and then by marking a basilar line from the 

 external aperture of the ears to the lower edge of the aperture of the 

 nostrils, so as to bisect the previous line : the angle, thus formed, is 

 termed the facial angle, which Camper states to be fifty-eight degrees in 

 the young Orang, seventy in the young Negro, and eighty degrees in the 

 European ; the acuteness of the facial angle being supposed to be in pro- 

 portion to the inferiority of the subject, in the scale of mental develop- 

 ment, and vice versa. 



The following figures of the skull and head of a young Negro (figs. 27 

 and 28), and of an ordinary European (figs. 29 and 30), are from Camper, 

 and illustrate the application of the facial angle. 



27 29 



27, 2S._The skull and facial outline of a young Negro. 29, 30. The skull and facial outline of an ordinary European 



As, however, from the varying position of the auditory foramen, and 

 also of the jaws, with respect to the cranium, the angle thus formed 

 fails as a test, Cuvier proposed, by way of amendment, that a basilar 

 line be drawn parallel to the floor of the nostrils; the angle formed 

 with which, by a facial line drawn from the anterior convexity of the 

 forehead to the greatest prominence of the alveoli, whether the point of 

 contact be external or not, he states to be sixty-seven degrees in the 

 young Orang, seventy degrees in the adult Negro, eighty-five degrees in 

 the adult European, and ninety degrees in the European child. 



