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Show 206 TilE CRANIAL OllARAOTERISTIOS .. Ill ~ c:<l ~.,.. ~ ,.. IQ OF TilE RACES OF MEN. 209 speaks of the orang as having the person, manner, and actions of man.7 Still higher and more complex propositions engage tho attention of the crauioscopist. Wbat is the nature of tho sl·ull as a wl10lo, and what is tho nature respectively of its diftcront parts? Wby should it be composed of 22 bones, and no more? W1Jat is the moaning of the sutures, and what their relation to individual and race forms of the skull? "What arc the relations of the cranium to tho bony skeleton on the one hand, and to the delicate organ of thought an<l s-ensation, which it encloses, on tho other? What are tho laws of its development? When has it obtaine<l its full growth, and what arc the indications of this fact? Is this period the same in all the varieties of men ? Does the cranium give form to the brain, or, vice-versa, docs the latter mould the former to itself? What arc tho relations of cranial form to mental and moral manifestations,-" to capability of civilization, and actual progress in arts, sciences, literature, government, &c.?" Is thoro one, or arc there many primitive cranial types or forms? If one, how have originated tho distinctions which we now perceive? If many, what arc tho distinguishing peculiarities of tho primiti vc forms ? .Arc these peculiarities primordial and constant, or can they be adequately accounted for by the action of external causes? To what extent is tho form of tho cranium modified by climatic conditions, habits of lifo, ago, sox, intermarriage, &c. ? Does intellectual cultivation modify tho form of tho skull? Can acquired modifications of cranial form be transmitted hereditarily? If so, what are tho laws of this transmission ? Is thoro for skull-forms, as Flourcns has said of races, "an art of preserving their purity, of modifying them, altering and produci11g new ones ?"8 Arc tho few loading cranial typos which we at present encounter in the human family, primary results of certain cosmogonic causes, which ceased to act tho moment after their formation; o1·, are they tho secondary, or oven tertiary and quaternary rosultR, as Count do Gobinoau supposes, of tho intermixture of races, occurring at periods antcdatin()' all hiHtorical and monumental record ?0 S_uoh arc a few of tho loading questions which arise from a thoughtful examination of tho human cranium,-qncstions which I indicate hero, rather as exemplifying the scope and philosophical character of cranioscopy, than with tho view of answering them in detail. In- 7 An Account of tl1e Regular Gradation in Man, and in different Animals and Vogotables, • &o. By Cbas. White. London, 1790. s De I' Instinct ot do I'Intelligence des Animaux, par P. Fleurens: 8me Edit., Paris, 1851, p. 121. 9 Bssai sur l'ln6galit6 d(\s ltncos IIumaines, par M. A. de Gobineau: Paris, 1858, vol. 1, p. 245. 14 |