382 LECTURE XIII. 



This resemblance, if it should be confirmed, would at any 

 rate furnish us with some clue relative to the age of this 

 Basque stock, which, with its physical constitution, its lan- 



at most 75 ; the head measure of the semi-long is com.prised between 75 and 

 77'77, i. e. between sis-eighths and seven-ninths ; the middle-heads from 

 77'77, i. e. from seven-ninths to eight-tenths; the semi-short heads, between 

 80 and 83 ; and finally, the genuine short-heads comprise all measurements 

 exceeding 83. According to this division there would be, among the sixty 

 Basque skulls, nine pure long-heads, twenty semi-longheads, nineteen middle 

 heads, twelve semi-shortheads, but not one genuine shorthead, so that the 

 mean lies in the semi-longheads ; and the Basques possess a proportionally 

 longer skull than the present Parisians, whilst the cranial capacity is also 

 greater, — a fact which cannot altogether be connected with the development 

 of intelligence, but is probably the result of racial difference. 



Everyone is, of course, at liberty to fix the Hmits of the various propor- 

 tions in head measurements according to his pleasure ; stOl it is to be re- 

 gretted that no agreement exists as to the signification of the various terms. 

 In fact it has come to this, that any person who uses the terms short, middle, 

 and longheads, must be asked in what sense, and according to what author, 

 he wishes these terms to be understood. 



Broca, however, advances a step further, and fi'om his measurements, the 

 terminal points of which can be determined with great exactness, he, with 

 Gratiolet, arrives at the conclusion that two types of dolichocephaly must be 

 distinguished: the frontal dolichocephalic, to which belong the German 

 races, and the occipital dolichocephalic, comprising the African and Oceanic 

 Negroes. In other words, in the former, it is the frontal region, and espe- 

 cially the frontal bone ; in the latter, it is the occipital region, which is espe- 

 cially lengthened ; and in this way conditions the predominance of the lon- 

 gitudinal diameter. 



In order to give these proportions a definite term of measurement, Broca 

 connects the auditory apertures by a line which passes over the posterior 

 point of the fr'ontal bone ; or, in other words, he draws upon the skull the 

 diagonal cii'cumference of Virchow (see page 62), which has the same di- 

 rection. This diagonal circumference represents a section which divides 

 the fore fr-om the back skull, which can thus be compared. Broca now finds 

 that although the Basque skulls are longer, wider, and higher, than the 

 Parisians, still the so-parted off foresktill is less developed in the Basques 

 than in the Parisians, so much that even in circumference it is absolutely 

 smaller by six millimetres. Prom other measurements Broca comes to the 

 conclusion that the dolichocephaly of the Basques rests mainly upon the 

 disproportionate development of the posterior cerebral lobe. 



"In proving," continues Broca, "that the Basques present the characters 

 of occipital dolichocephaly, I have, in my opinion, also proved that between 

 them and the Indo-Germanic longheads there obtains a great difference. 

 As among the European races I found no poiuts for comparison, and being 

 reminded that this kiad of dolichocephaly belongs essentially to the Ameri- 

 can race, I studied, by comparison, the cranial forms of the Basques, the 

 Parisians, and the Negroes." 



From these comparisons, into the particulars of which we cannot enter, 

 Broca finally concludes : — " The Basques much approach the African long- 

 heads ; they much resemble the Negroes by the form of the cerebral skull, 

 which in this respect deviates but little from the orthognathous African races. 



" I must, however, add that the Basques differ fr'om all African races, even 

 the whitest and most orthognathous, by the smallness of their upper jaw, 

 the slight development of the cerebellar protuberance, and the relative 

 shrinking of the occipital protuberance. These characters equally distin- 

 guish the Basques from the European races. 



