It is more easy to imagine that a pyramidal or a prognathous cranium can be metamor phosed into an elliptical one, than that either of the two first-named forms can be converted into the other. Yet very strong evidence is furnished by philological considerations, that the Hottentot races constitute a branch of the common African stock ; and the approx imation which their skulls present to the pyramidal type cannot be for a moment attri buted to intermixture with any Mongolian race. On the other hand, among the in habitants of Oceania, there are many races which present, more or less decidedly, the prognathous type ; and this sometimes asso ciated with woolly or " frizzled," sometimes with long and straight hair. Yet there is strong philological evidence for regarding these as descendants of colonists who spread themselves (probably by various lines of migration) from south-eastern Asia. and who carried to the various islands of the vast Malayo-Polynesian Archipelago, the pyra midal type more or less softened down. On no other hypothesis can the extraordinary community in the fundamental elements of their languages be accounted for, the tribes which use them being in a state of complete isolation from each other. Where, as is frequently the case, the same island or group is peopled by two or more races, having different physical characters, it is always found that the greatest tendency to the prognathous type shows itself among those which appear to have longest dwelt there in a state of barbarism ; and that it is most strongly marked, when, to other degrading agencies, that of a low and marshy soil has been added.
Even the elliptical type, as already re marked, may occasionally present indications of degradation towards one of the others. Want, squalor, and ignorance, have a special tendency to induce that diminution of the cranial portion of the skull, and that increase of the facial, which characterise the prog nathous type ; as cannot but be observed by any one who takes an accurate and candid survey of the condition of the most degraded part of the population of the great towns of this country, but as is seen to be pre eminently the case with regard to the lowest classes of Irish immigrants. A certain degree of regression to the pyramidal type is also to be noticed among the " nomadic" tribes which are to be found in every civilised community. Among these, as has been re marked by a very acute observer, "accord ing as they partake more or less of the purely vagabond nature, doing nothing whatsoever for their living, but moving from place to place, preying on the earnings of the more industrious portion of the community, so will the attributes of the nomade races be found more or less marked in them ; and they are all more or less distinguished for their high cheek bones and protruding jaws ;" * thus showing that kind of mixture of the pyra midal with the prognathous type, which is to be seen among the most degraded of the Malayo-Polynesian races.
It has not been pointed out, so far as the writer is aware, by any ethnologist, that the conformation of the cranium seems to have undergone a certain amount of alteration even in the Anglo-Saxon race of the United States, which assimilates it in some degree to that of the aboriginal inhabitants. Certain it is, that,
among New Englanders more particularly, a cast of countenance prevails, which usually renders it easy for any one familiar with it to point out an individual of that country in the midst of an assemblage of Englishmen ; and although this may chiefly depend upon the conformation of the soft parts, yet there is a certain sharpness, and an angularity of feature about a genuine " Yankee," which would probably display itself in the contour of the bones. So far as the writer's observation has extended, there is especially to be noticed an excess of breadth between the rami of the lower jaw, giving to the lower part of the face a peculiar squareness (something like that which is shown in fig.821), that is in strik ing contrast with the tendency to an oval narrowing which is most common among the inhabitants of the " old country." And it is not a little significant, that the well-marked change which has thus shown itself in the course of a very few generations, should tend to assimilate the Anglo-American race to the aborigines of the country ; the peculiar phy siognomy here adverted to, most assuredly presenting a transition, however slight, to wards that of the North-American Indian.
2. Conformation of the Pelvis. — Certain differences in the pelvis have been thought to be characteristic of particular nations or groups of nations. According to Professor Vrolik who was the first to take up the enquiry systematically, the difference between the male and the female pelvis is much more strongly marked in the Negro than in the Eu ropean. The pelvis of the male Negro, in the strength and density of its substance, and in the form of its component bones,resembles the pelvis of a wild beast ; while, on the contrary, the pelvis of the female of the same race com bines lightness of substance and delicacy of form and structure. Notwithstanding this delicacy of conformation, it is considered by Professor Vrolik to present characters which indicate an approximation to that of the Quadrumana ; for the ossa ilii are unusually vertical in their direction, and the highest part of their crest is situated immediately above the posterior and upper tuberosity, instead of being midway between the anterior spine and posterior tuberosity ; the length of the an tero-posterior diameter at the brim is very great in proportion to the transverse diameter; the sacrum is narrower, and the angle beneath the pubic articulation more acute; the whole pelvis is longer ; but the diameters at the outlet are not sensibly different from those of the European pelvis. The conformation of the pelvis in the female.Hottentot, who died in Paris in 1815, is considered by Professor Vrolik to present a still wider departure from the European form, and a correspondingly nearer approximation to the quadrumanous ; the ilia are so vertical in their direction, and are so much lengthened upwards, as to rise above the level of the middle of the fourth lumbar vertebra. In the Javanese (Malay), the pelvis is distinguished by its smallness, its peculiar lightness of substance, and the cir cular form of its upper aperture; the pro montory of the sacrum projects very little ; and the ischiadic spines are remarkably turned inwards.