HE. J. CLELAND OX THE YAEIATIONS OE THE HUMAN SKULL. 
121 
the only modes by which accurate information can be arrived at appear to be by exten- 
sive examination of the living subject, and by comparison of the skulls of the dead with 
carefully takeu casts of the features. Early in these inquiries it occurred to the writer 
that doubtless the same principle of balance came into play in the support of the head 
as in the rest of the body, but that as the proportions of the head are very different at 
different ages, the position of balance on the vertebral column must be different at dif- 
ferent periods of life. Proof will be adduced in support of this proposition further on ; 
but it is necessary now to mention that it was with the view of collecting evidence on this 
point that the arbitrary horizontal line was chosen which has been used throughout the 
present investigations, and which was obtained as follows. The skull to be examined 
having been placed in the frame with the base upwards, a fiat slip of wood was rested 
on the condyles and posterior boundaries of the foramen magnum, and allowed to project 
backwards ; the skull was then rotated till the wooden slip was in the horizontal position. 
Now, probably in most cases the posterior limit of the foramen magnum is close to or 
rests on the arch of the atlas, and in elderly subjects it is not uncommon to find a 
flat facet at the back of the foramen magnum indicating this contact. If, therefore, the 
deepest parts of the upper articular surfaces of the atlas and the posterior arch of that 
bone lay in a horizontal plane, the skull would be correctly placed by the means now 
described. Unfortunately, however, this is not always the case; and all that can be 
maintained is that some approximation to accuracy is thus reached, which will probably 
be admitted on examination of the majority of the accompanying diagrams. To elimi- 
nate, therefore, as much as possible an element in which uncertainty is inherent, the 
measurements in the present inquiry have been all made so as to be independent of the 
position of the skull, except in the section in which the question of position is itself 
considered. 
To prevent the possibility of any mistake, it may be proper to explain at the outset 
that all statements which will be made with regard to national forms of crania are to be 
understood as referring simply to the results of the measurements of the skulls enume- 
rated in the General Table ; and as it will be observed that in the case of some nation- 
alities the specimens are too few in number, and in many instances the history is less 
complete than would be desirable, the statements founded on those specimens are not 
put forward dogmatically as of general application, but rather as suggesting probable 
laws which must be left for other observers to investigate. When the form of the 
Greek skull is spoken of, it is of course only the Modern Greek which is alluded to ; and 
the peculiarities exhibited by each of the five Greek skulls examined makes the writer 
particularly regret in this instance the paucity of specimens and the incompleteness of 
their histories. So also it is much to be regretted that there is no record of the parti- 
cular part of Germany from which any of the eight German skulls examined have been 
obtained, and that therefore it has been impossible to distinguish between North and 
South German. 
