408 A Study of the Nasal Bridge in the Anthropoid Apes 
Now we have already seen that the sexual differences in the mesodacryal 
indices are not very large, but we notice at once that these sexual differences are 
very considerable in the absolute measurements. It becomes rather meaningless 
to assert that the Hindoo's eyes are closer together than the Englishman's, when 
the difference in mesodacryal chord is less than that between male and female 
Javanese. They are less for the same reason, namely, because the cranium as a 
whole is smaller. Practically the female is less — and often very considerably less — 
in every mesodacryal absolute measurement, and we cannot usefully compai'e 
males and females — except as to absolute size, a sexual difference we are already 
familiar with — unless we get rid of this problem of size by using as we have 
already done the indices. But surely if this be true for sex, it is also true for race. 
Our scales become scales of absolute size and of very small racial significance. 
In all probability absolute lengths or breadths of the head would tell just as much 
as is to be learnt from these tables of relative racial sizes of the bridge of the nose. 
In our opinion there is little that has bearing on racial relationships. In, for 
example, the chord scales, it is possible that Veddah and Orang-utans are close 
together because of an ancestral link, but the Hindoo appears in this part of the 
scale because of his small size. The association of the Negroes with the Gorillas 
may again be partly ancestral, but the association of English and Javanese in the 
same part of the scale as the Gorillas is probably fortuitous. We are inclined to 
say that very little indeed can be deduced from absolute scales of this kind for 
nasal characters. 
It is often asserted that a characteristic feature of the negro lies in the fact 
that he has his eyes farther apart than other races of man. The average value 
of the mesodacryal chord for the Congo and Gaboon male negroes is 23'5 and for 
English and Egyptians 21 "5 ; for the females, Congo and Gaboon, it is 22"G, and 
for English and Egyptians 20'6. There is thus 2 mm. difference on the average. 
Is it possible for the human eye to appreciate this difference ? We are inclined 
to doubt it and believe that it is the marked simotic platygephyrosis (see p. 430 
below) of the negro nose which produces largely the impression of greater ocular 
Value of Ratio 100 x Mesodacryal Chord j Minimum 
Forehead Breadth. 
Kace 
6 
? 
Congo 
24-6 
25-1 
Gaboon, 1864 ... 
24-0 
24-3 
Gaboon, 1880 ... 
23-5 
23-5 
Egyptians 
22 '6 
22-4 
Veddahs 
22-0 
21-2 
English 
21-9 
22-1 
Hindoos ... 
21-3 
21-0 
