Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/697

 RACE

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RACE

portions of the canon, the Fuegians undue length of the arms, the negro undue length of all four extremi- ties, and the Chinese deficient length of all four extremities.

As regards the skeleton the attempt was made, in the first place, to determine racial peculiarities by the study of the skull. The length, breadth, and height of the cranium were determined, and from these were calculated the length-breadth, length-height, and breadth-height indices — that is, the breadth and height were expressed as percentages of the length or breadth. According to the Frankfort Agreement of 1882 skulls are divided into narrow or dolichocephalic (up to 74-9), medium or mesocephalic (75-0 to 79-9), and broad or brachy cephalic (over SO-0) ; and further into low or chama?cephalic (up to 700), medium or orthocephalic (70-1 to 7,5-0), and high or hypsicephalic (over 750). According to the international agree- ment of 188.3 the following designations were added to those already in use: ultradolichocephalic (55-0 to 59-9) hyperdolichocephalic (60-0 to 64-9), hyper- brachycephalic (85-0 to 89-9) and ultrabrachycephalic (90-0 to 94-9). The French call skulls with a length- breadth index of 75-01 to 77-77 subdolichocephalic, of 80-01 to 83-33 subbrachycephalic; only the indices 77-78 to 80-0 are looked upon by them as mesocephalic. For the front of the skull the criteria used in deter- mining the peculiarities of a race are the height and breadth, the facial angle, and the form of the nostrils, orbital entrance, and palate. The ratios of the breadth of the zygomatic arch (supposing it equal to 100) to the height of the entire face (from the nasion to the gnathion), and to the height of the upper face (from the nasion to the prosthion), give facial indices which are divided by R. Martin into the following groups: (1) Index for the entire face: hypereury- pro.sopous (to 79-9), eurj'prosopous (80-0 to 84-9), mesoprosopous (85-0 to 89-9), leptoprosopous (90-0 to 94-9), hypcrleptoprosopous (over 95-0). (2) Index for the upper face: hypcreuryonic (to 44-9), euryonic (45-0 to 49-9), mesial (,50-0 to 54-9), leptous (55-0 to 59-9), hyperleptous (over 60-0). The expressions euryprosopous and euryonic correspond to the chamapconchous of the Frankfort Agreement; leptous is the same as leptoprosopous. According to the Frankfort Agreement the orbits are chama?conchous (to 80-0), mesoconchous (80-1 to 85-0), hypsiconchous (over 85-0); the nostrils are leptorhine (to 47-0), mesorhine (47-1 to 51-0), platyrhine (51-1 to 58-0), hyperplatyrhine (over 58-0); the palate is lepto- staphyline (to 80-0), mesostaphyline (80-0 to 85-0), brachystaphyline (over 85-0). The facial part of the skull with a facial angle up to 82 is called prog- nathous; with an angle of 83 to 90, orthognathous; with an angle of 91 and over, hypcrorthognathous. By facial angle is meant that formed by the line con- necting the naso-frontal suture and the point farthest forward on the upper jaw between the central incisors (the alveolar point) with the German horizontal plane. The German horizontal plane passes through the lowest point of the under edge of the orbits and the upper edge of the ear-aperture. Besides these in- dices, to which correspond groups more or less gener- ally recognized, other points of importance for the shape of the braincap and the facial part of the skull are: the ratio of the greatest breadth of the braincap to the smallest frontal breadth (smallest distance be- tween the temporal lines over the zygomatic process of the frontal bone); also the ratio of the breadth of the zygoma to the smallest breadth of the forehead, and to the breadth of the face at the two angles of the lower jaw. At the base of the skull measurements can be taken of the angle formed by the plane of the oc- cipital foramen with the German horizontal plane, and of the angle formed by this German plane with the surface between the occipital foramen and the epheno-basilar joint.

In the comparison of crania, especially of the ratios of angles, it is necessary to place the skull in a definite position. To attain this, various methods have been used besides the German horizontal plane already mentioned. G. Schwalbe has recently used the glabella-inion line (glabella, the central point between the arches of the eyebrows; inion, the protuberance of the occiput at the median line) for the comparison of the brainpans at the sagittal sutures, while H. Klaatsch has returned to the glabella-lambda line formerly proposed by Hamy (lambda, the point of union of the lambdoid and sagittal sutures). In the first case the height of the cap (the distance of the highest point from the glabella-inion line), the height of the bregma (the linear distance of the bregma from the point of comparison, i. e. the distance between the point of intersection of the coronal and sagittal sutures by the glabella-inion fine), and their ratios to the glabeila-inion line (which is taken as 100), can be determined. On this line Schwalbe traced the frontal angle (that between the tangent of the frontal bone at the glabella and the glabella-inion line), the bregma angle (bregma-glabella-inion) ; the lambda angle (lambda-inion-glabella) ; the opisthion angle (glabella/- inion-opisthion ; the opisthion is the posterior border of the occipital foramen). Schwalbe also determined the position of the bregma (distance of the base point of the bregma-verticals from the glabella) and the index of this position to the glabella-inion line, the glabella-cerebral index (ratio of the tendon of the glabella arch to the tendon of the arch of the frontal bone). The other bones of the skeleton were not made the object of exhaustive study until more recent times. Particular mention should be made, as important in the comparative anatomy of races, of the cross-section of the fliaphysis of the long bones, and of the position of the epiphyses to the diaphysis.

Not only the structure of the skeleton, but also the musculation and the general formation of the soft parts are taken into consideration. As regards the musculation attention is given especially to the vari- eties found in the face; measuring the thickness of the soft parts of the face (by piercing with needles such parts in fresh or preserved cadavers) also yields good results, when there are sufficient subjects for investiga- tion. Apparently, the flat, broad face of the Mongol is mainly conditioned by the great thickness of the soft parts in the region of the cheek. Racial differ- ences are also shown by the nose. The nose of Europeans and Asiatic Indians is long, narrow, with a more or less decided projection; the roots are high and narrow, the back straight or convex, the wings are appressed, the nostrils set vertically to the upper lip, the elevation (that is the height of the point above the lip) relatively large. According to Topinard's theory noses are divided into aquiline, straight, flat, hooked, and Semitic noses. The nose of the aboriginal Austra- lians is poorly developed; it does not project, the roots are low and broad, the back broad and rather concave, the wings decidedly projecting; the nostrils lie parallel to the upper lip, and the elevation is slight. There are a large number of intermediate forms be- tween those extreme ones (e. g. according to Topinard, the Mongoloid, negroid, and Australioid). The roots of the nose may enter the forehead without depres- sion, by a sharp bend, or in a flat curve. The region above the orbits and between the borders of the orbits varies. Either the entire part projects in a ridge (brow ridges, torus supraorbitalis), or only the glabella, that is the prominent part of the forehead just above the root of the nose, seems to be curved, or projections arise from a somewhat depressed gla- bella and extend to about the middle of the upper orbital border, the sections on the sides being then flat (plnnnni supraorhitale). The forehead is either flat and receding, or is full, domed, and rises more or less abruptly. The position of the sockets of the