338 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
ANTHROPOLOGY, ITS MEANING AND AIM. 
BY JOSEPH SMITH, JUN., M.A.I. 
( Continued from page 325.) 
The change of climate to mildness has a tendency to 
reduce the size of the body, and it will be found on 
comparison that the bones from the early sepulchres, when 
a cold climate has been known to exist, are of greater 
proportions than those of beings dwelling in the same place 
during a warmer temperature. 
The skull of an infant is soft, and is capable of being 
moulded into any form before solidifying takes place. If 
consideration is taken of the innumerable and adventitious 
causes which come into operation, and influence the formation 
of the skull, you will no longer be able to wonder at the 
variety of form presented by the human cranium, even amongst 
those belonging to our own nation. Sleeping on the back 
gives a compressed occiput, and by lying on one side you 
have an elongated skull. Hippocrates (“De aer., aqu., et 
loc.,” 35,) states that after artificial shaping of the skull has 
taken place for a very long period, a kind of natural degene¬ 
ration is observed, and the means previously adopted for 
obtaining this form are no more a necessity, since the skulls 
grow of their own accord to the form acquired. 
Anthropologists have been labouring strongly to estab¬ 
lish some recognised method of measurement, the result of 
which is that Retzius’s division has been further divided and 
improved, the skull indices for the measurement of capacity 
being as follows :— 
Length and Breadth Index. 
100 x breadth 
length 
Dolichocephalic (long skull) . below 75’0 
Mesoceplialic . 75-1 to 79-9 
Bracliyceplialic (short skull). SOB ,, 85*0 
Hyperbrachyceplialic . 85*1 and over. 
Length and Height Index. 
100 x height 
length 
Cliameecephalic (flat skull). 75*0 and under 
Orthocephalic . 70H to 75*0 
Hypsicephalic (high skull). 75*1 and over. 
