E. TSCHEPOURKOWSKY 
291 
In concluding this study I wish to state some theoretical considerations whicl), 
although perhaps far from the absolute truth may, I hope, yet show how important 
for anthropology the biometrician's work will be in the future when aided by 
extended anatomical studies. I call first the i-eader's attention to the fact that the 
several diameters of the head in new-born children do not stand in equal relation 
to those of adults. In other words the}' need not accomplish the same growth to 
reach the adult stage. The most complete table of these differences will be found 
in the work of Papillaut. From my own measurements of the base of the skulls of 
new-born infants I have reached, as a general result, the conclusion that the 
breadths of the skull and of its base are far less developed in the embryonic stage 
than the lengths when we compare their ratios with those of adults. I give here 
some numerical data extracted from the work of Papillaut. 
Character 
Upper Face 
Height 
Bizygomatie 
Breadth 
Breadth of 
Skull 
Length of 
Skull 
Minimum 
Frontal 
Breadth 
„ , , . New-Born 
Kelation : -. , ., — 
Adult 
Coefficient of Interracial Variation 
447„ 
5-29 
487„ 
3-14 
56 -SV, 
4-71 
607. 
2-57 
607„ 
2-76 
Compared with the coefficients of interracial variation they show parallelism 
with only one exception — that of bizygomatie breadth. I cannot affirm that racial 
differences in the skull are simply differences of growth, but the above- 
mentioned parallelism seems to me not without interest when compared with the 
other point which is also connected with growth. We have seen that interracially 
and partly intraracially — probably as far as we can eliminate the influence of 
mixture — the cephalic index diminishes with stature, because the length and 
height increase and the breadth decreases. I have also shown that the length of 
the basis is positively related with the length and height and negatively with the 
breadth of the skull. Now the length of the basis consists of two parts, which are 
very different embryologically. The distance between sutura spheno-basilaris and 
the basion is the end of the primordial skeleton-axis, i.e. of the chorda dorsualis. 
The second part, i.e. the distance between nasion and sutura, is connected with the 
development of the brain and partly influenced by sinus frontales. Manouvrier 
has shown that only the first part of the base- length depends on stature. It has 
much more to grow in order to reach the adult stage than the second, which is 
developed very early. The reason is the great development of the embryonic brain 
owing perhaps to its physiological faculties. It follows from these considerations 
that the negative correlation between stature and cephalic index can be explained 
by the growth of the length from basion to sutura basio-sphenoidalis, which 
increases much more rapidly with the stature than others do because it is a part of 
the primordial body-skeleton. With the increase of this diameter the length of 
the skull and the basio-bregmatic height increase also, but the breadth compensa- 
tionally decreases. As it follows i'rom the tables, all these correlations are 
37—2 
