To find a line which should not vary, but enable me to measure
with correctness in all cases the angles both of the facial line, and
of the line intermediate between the cranium and the face, I suspended
the skull, poising it upon a perpendicular rod in this
manner*:—I first placed a fine rod with an iron point exactly perpendicular
; r then set down the skull on this rod, passing the point
into the inside of the skull through the foramen magnum, so that
the upper part of the cranium rested on the point. On poising the
skull so that the rod was exactly betwixt the condyles of the
occipital bone, that is, at the point on which the head naturally
rests, I procured a line perpendicular to the skull.
I now divided into degrees or equal parts the great convexity
of the cranium, from the setting on of the nose on the fore part to
the margin of the occipital hole behind; and having so prepared
several skulls for adjustment on the rod, I began to make my
observations.
In comparing the European skull with that of the Negro, the
point of the rod in the latter touched the inside of the cranium
several degrees nearer to the bones of the face, or more forward on
the cranium, than the former.
* See the adjoining Plate, fig. 7, which is an outline of the Negro skull thus
suspended.
On measuring the angle which the facial line of Camper made
with this perpendicular line, in a European skull the most perfect
in form of any I posssessed, I found the difference to be ten degrees.
The facial line of the Negro made with the perpendicular an angle
of twenty-six degrees.
The cause of a difference so much greater betwixt the European
and African skull, in this way of measuring than in Camper’s
plates, is, that in this method the facial line has reference to the
whole form and proportion of the head; whereas in Camper’s
measurement it only marks the inclination of the face.
We have now an explanation of the peculiarity in the position
of the Negro head; the upward inclination of the face, and the
falling back of the head. And here too we have it proved that it
is an error to suppose the Negro head to be remarkable in character
on account of any increase in the proportion of the bones of the face,
to the area of the cranium; for the area of the bone's of the face is
in this way shown to bear a proportion to the area of the bones in
the cranium, less in the Negro than in the European head.
My next object of inquiry was to find on what the distinctive
character of the Negro face really depends. For to the eye the
Negro face appears larger, while in fact it is proved to be smaller,
than the European, considered in relation to the cranium. I took
off the lower jaw-bones from both the European and the Negro
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