THE SKELETON 61 
with strong, over-arching, superciliary ridges. This may be 
carried so far that the fronto-nasal suture may lhe almost on 
a level with the centre of the orbit, whereas, as a rule, it lies 
much higher. The arrangement manifestly involves the frontal 
in a far greater share of the orbital wall than is the case with 
Europeans ; and, correlatively, the os planum is in this race some- 
what more than 2 mm. narrower than that of the European. 
The bridge of the nose in the Veddahs is not nearly so high 
as in Europeans, 2e. it remains sunk between the orbits. In 
other words, the two nasal bones do not slope outwards against 
one another as they do in Europeans (in profile, they together 
ape 
Fic. 41.—THE SKULL OF A NEGRO EUNUCH, in which the process of the alisphenoid 
(cf. Fig. 40) is represented by a distinct bone—the epipteric (t). 
describe a curve slightly concave anteriorly), and this, in life, 
results in a flat nose. This condition is palingenetically repro- 
duced in the European child, and finds its expression in the 
flatness of the nose, the bridge developing only in later years. 
The choane of the Veddah’s skull are, on an average, half a 
centimetre lower than in the European. 
Turning now to the facial portion of the skull the upper 
jaw first claims attention. That portion of it which carries the 
incisors 1s particularly interesting, because Ontogeny teaches that 
it was originally a separate bone, homologous with the pre- or 
intermaxillary of the lower Vertebrata. This bone is an inherit- 
ance which reappears with the greatest constancy from the bony 
Fishes upwards throughout the Vertebrata; but whereas in by far 
the greater number of these the premaxillary remains an 
independent bone, in Primates it early fuses with the adjacent 
elements of the upper jaw to form one mass. In Man this fusion 
