e s s a y yiii.
SOME FU R TH ER OBSERVATIONS ON TH E PROPORTIONS OF THE
SKULL, SZC.
I t was observed in the preceding essay, that the different
methods of measuring the head might all of them assist us in
noting the varieties in the form of the head, but that none of them
contained a just principle for distinguishing what was by all men
acknowledged to be beautiful in the antique. A circumstance to
which Professor Gibson of Baltimore, then my pupil, drew my attention,
convinced me that the methods which physiologists had
practised were very incorrect. He placed before me the skull of a
European and of a Negro, and resting them both on the condyles
of the occipital bone, it appeared that the European fell forward
and the African backward. This struck me as remarkable, when
both physiologists and physiognomists were describing the greater
comparative size of the face as the grand peculiarity of the African
head. I was desirous of investigating this matter further.
