128 LECTURE V. 



compression which effects the peculiar frizzhng of the hair, 

 owing to its not taking place exactly in the direction of the 

 longitudinal axis of the hair, but ascending in spirals, so that 

 the hair resembles a spiral spring, which always returns to its 

 shape when drawn out. 



The arrangement of the soft parts is not less necessary for 

 the characterisation of the various human races. The distri- 

 bution of the muscular apparatus upon the trunk and the limbs 

 becomes very important in relation to the corresponding ar- 

 rangement in the ape. The pendulous abdomen of some of 

 the lower races, among whom a mature man resembles, in this 

 respect, a Caucasian woman who has had a large family,' shows 

 an approximation to the ape, as do also the want of calves, 

 the flatness of the thighs, the pointed form of the buttocks, 

 and the leanness of the upper arm, observed in other races. 

 The observer must, no doubt, be careful not to assume, as 

 original race difi'erences, changes produced by famine, etc. 

 The Australians, Bushmen, and some less known American 

 tribes, have a severe struggle for existence. Their increase is 

 impossible on account of privations, and if subject to further 

 injurious influences, the tribe becomes extinct. In such cases 

 we find some characters, such as deficiency of muscle, to be 

 the consequence of the condition under which the tribe 

 has lived for many years, and we must be careful how we infer 

 an original character from them. But when, as in many 

 Negro peoples, we find that food is possessed in abundance, 

 the muscular apparatus may very properly be included in the 

 series of distinctive characters. 



The FEATURES depend less on external influences. Even the 

 general form of the face, and the proportions of its component 

 parts, are frequently characteristic to an extraordinary degree. 

 There are faces of a perfect oval form, the chin representing 

 the pointed, and the forehead the obtuse, end of an egg 

 There are some which present the form of an elongate ellipsis ; 

 while others present the aspect of a pentagon, or of a pyramid, 

 or a square with round corners, the angles being formed by 

 the cheekbones. We then come to the proportions of the 

 several parts of the face. In the well-formed European, the 



