LECTURE II. 47 



According to Von Baer the following characteristic relations 

 with regard to form, may be pointed out in the aspect of skulls 

 from different points of view : 



The vertical view {norma verticaUs) was designated by the 

 venerable Blumenbach as highly important and characteristic, 

 although, strange to say, there is not a single figure of this 

 kind to be found in his decades of views of the cranium. 

 "Very frequently," says Von Baer, " the form of the cranium 

 viewed from above, is oval, if the transition from the frontal 

 bone to the zygoma is kept out of view. The shape is some- 

 times very like that of a common hen's egg, that is, simply 

 oval, sometimes broadly oval, sometimes longer, narrowly oval. 

 In the broad form the rounded part in front is frequently 

 wanting, the forehead is not arched transversely, but is broad 

 and flat ; in others, especially the short-heads, this form occurs 

 in the occiput ; there are anteriorily and posteriorily shortened 

 oval shapes ; and if forehead and occiput are equally flattened, 

 and the sides slightly compressed, there results the form 

 which has been termed quadrate." But sometimes, especially 

 among the long-heads, the occipital region is found as pointedly 

 arched as the forehead, so that no true broad end exists, a 

 form which Baer designates not quite correctly as elongated 

 oval. And, finally, there are forms very closely resembling the 

 elliptical, though the largest transverse diameter is always a 

 little behind the centre. 



But this vertical view is of special importance, as exhibit- 

 ing, at a glance, the proportion of the longitudinal to the 

 transverse diameter of the cranium. This proportion is, in 

 fact, so important, that recent French authors* term it the 

 cephalic index {inclice cephaUque), and designate it by a single 

 cipher, which is obtained by assuming the longitudinal dia- 

 meter = 100, and reducing the transverse diameter to this 

 denomination; cephalic index = 80, means, therefore, that 

 assuming the longitudinal diameter to be 100, the transverse 

 is 80. As Welcker observes, Blumenbach designated the 

 Negro and the Calmuck skull as the extremes of cranial form, 

 and he added, that a model, made of wax (better, now-a-days, 



* Especially Broca. — Editor. 



