The great prominence of the external nose, and the comparative smallness of its internal cavities, form one of the most distinguishing characters of the human face. Cuvier has pointed out how the relative proportion in size between the cranium and the cavities of the nose and mouth affords an indication of the approach towards perfection of the internal and intellectual faculties in comparison with the external or sentient. For the senses of smell and taste " are those which act on animals with the most force, which most powerfully master them, through the energy which two of the most pressing desires, hunger and lust, communicate to their impressions."' But in man the sense of smell is, in both these re gards, subordinate to that of sight; and the developement of his internal olfactory appa ratus is, in comparison with that of lower ani mals, extremely small. In the varieties of the human race the perfection of the sense and the developement of its organ are the less the more civilized their several habits of life are. Among ourselves, the blind alone maintain the sense in the energy of which it is capable, and in which it is said to be habitually exerted in some less civilized tnbes. In the latter a greater developement of the organ of smell, and even of its osseous part, corresponds with its greater acuteness and the degree in which it is exerted. The greater distance between the orbits, which is especially remarkable in the Kalmucks and other Mongolian tribes, may be an indication of this greater developement; but a more important one is the size and coin • plexity of the turbinated bones. The nasal fussx of the skulls of Negroes are larger in all their dimensions than those of 1::uropeans; and Soemmering,f in numerous examinations, found the sinuses within the middle turbinated bones constant in the Negro, though rare in others. Blumenbach" confirms both these observations, and mentions particularly the skull of a North American Indian in his collection, in which these sinuses were of extraordinary size. Iluw
ever, these differences of size are probably not a full measure of the differences of acuteness of the sense: it is most likely that in the nose as in the other organs of sense, acuteness of perception is connected with fineness of di vision, rather than with extent of distnbution, of the recipient nerve.
The prominence. of the nose is even more characteristic of man than the smallness of its cavities. In other Mammalia it stands out, indeed, much further from the skull, but it is in company with the upper jaw, beyond which it does not, as in mati, project. For the same reason, the nostrils, which in man are hori zontal and directed downwards, in adaptation to his erect posture, and to his hand ever ready to carry objects to them, are, in the lower ani mals, vertical. The nasal processes of their superior maxillary bones, also, lying flat and being very broad, and the small. size of their nasal bones, prevent the peculiarly human elevation of the bridge of the nose.
The forms of the extenial nose are among the characteristics of the varieties of our spe cies. In all its almost infinite varieties of form the Caucasian nose is on the whole narrow, elongated downwards, and elevated at the bridge ; the Mongolian is flat and very broad at its base; the American less flat than tl Mongolian, but less prominent than the Ca casian ; the Ethiopian flat, broad, and ve thick at its base; the Malay full and broa and, in general, thicker at its apex than t other varieties are. As for the varieties form in the individuals of the same race nation, they have little, if any, physiologi interest : they are not known to have any co nection with differences of function, and t importance they have acquired is founded the unsupported notion that they are cha teristic of corresponding varieties of ten and of intellect.