404 PjHiSiCkt CfUAKA&rtUisftCS of fiflfE CELto 



Lave discussed the probable caiises of such defoi'mations in fornffe/ 

 papers, and need not resume the subject hete* 



Anothef slJghft,' hiA cvtnoxis, irtdication! 6f the tinsyrametrjcal ar- 

 rangement of the two ^deB of the head is shown by the' position of 

 the eats. To this my attention was drawn by my f?iend, Mr. LangtOn^ 

 when examining the French head-fotms at Quebec. Ejy attaching & 

 paper frame to the r!m of a hat, and marking a line corfesptnlding 

 with the centre of each ear, the ©bli«|^e distortion, which is best ob- 

 served by looking on the base of the slcdll, is readily defected iii- the 

 living besd. The estent to which the ears diverge from the opposite 

 joints" of a line (jfawn dt right angles to the longitudinal diameter iir 

 frequently startling to those whose attefttion is directed to if for the' 

 first time. N^o ethnicfsl significance can be attached to such irj*egalar> 

 Mes in cranial conformation. The same, I doubt not, will be found' 

 among all races ; and the hfabits of civilized nations tend no less to' 

 their production, than the tindesigned nsages of savage tribes. Ohe 

 of the most renrarkable esaimples of an unsymmetrical skull which has^ 

 recently come nnder my notice, is that of a Ghinese, in the coltection- 

 ®f Dr. Warren, at Boston^ wMch is distorted obli(|ueIy, with predomi"' 

 iiant development on the left ^de. 



Ohe other question, which may receive illnstratibnfi^oto^'sirffifciehtly^ 

 extensive series of observations, is that ailready referred to,- of the pos- 

 sible changes of head-form by mere' lapse of time, with the atecomp^ny- 

 fdg modifications of diet, climate, and habits of life. A^motig the^ 

 short head -forms occiiTring as exceptions to tlie" genefisl Anglo-'Saxon 

 type, is that of my friend. Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, F.R.S., the descend-- 

 atit of a Kew England family d-ating back nearly to the first toyage of 

 the " May Flower^" It suggests the desirableness of a minute cOrii-' 

 parison of head-fortes of the old Me-w England families. Ithe experi" 

 iehee of the New England hatters points, as we have seen, to the pre- 

 valence there of ati unusually l^ng atsd high type 6f helEtd. Bnt the per- 

 eeritage of native Armericans of old descent even in the Inngest settled 

 States mttst be ^all, situated as these are on the seaboard, and recei-* 

 tifagthe amgraal inStix of emigration to fill np the gaps caused by 

 Panderings &f their oW& popnlation iMto the tteW "West. Itidica-^ 

 iions of the deteldjiment 6f a I^ew Eiigiabd type, of variety of the 

 Aiaglo-'SaxoH colonist have long- been' noted vrith interest j and minute 

 data relative to the cranial type of tiKfe pure descendants of theeariiest 

 settlers wottld be of great value in their bearing on this subject. Sfe' 



