Anthropology: Physical Varieties. 39 



ing a due regard and close attention to the points 

 which anthropology has noted in these skulls. 



37. The first observation that occurs is this. No 

 sooner was dolichocephalism, or long-headedness, 

 noted, than a comparison was instituted 

 at once, in the interests of science, with varieties 

 the actual races of mankind, of which we 

 shall treat expressly in the second part. And it was 

 found that existing men show every type and meas- 

 urement, as well of this cranial conformation, as 

 of its opposite, brachycephalism, and of every other. 

 M. de Quatrefages transcribes long lists of measure- 

 ments which show this. In the second place, a 

 number of other anatomical elements, thought to 

 be peculiar in these fossil skulls, such as the super- 

 ciliary prominences, the small and receding forehead, 

 the form of the ciliary arcs, the amplitude of the 

 occiput, are found to be but the individual and ac- 

 cidental varieties of men living among us. Neither 

 the low-minded amongst us, nor the high-minded, 

 nor even distinctive eminence in cultivation and 

 genius has appropriated any exclusive form of cra- 

 nium. The form can be modified before birth, and 

 the peculiarities become congenital. It can be 

 modified after death, and they are posthumous; 

 physical and chemical agents so far affecting the 

 skeleton as to change the proportions. Other 

 causes operate during life ; and they are either arti- 

 ficial in their nature, as the forced compression of 

 the skull, a practice still holding among certain 



