and the women of several Central African peoples, for instance, when viewed from behind, can scarcely be distinguished from men; even Arab women, in whom the pelvis (as Kocher and others have described it) is broadly extended, show nothing of the globular fulness of the well-developed European woman. The pelvis has developed during the course of human evolution; while in some of the dark races it is ape-like in its narrowness and small capacity, in the highest European races it becomes a sexual distinc- tion which immediately strikes the eyes and can scarcely be effaced; while the women of these races endeavour still further to accentuate it by artificial means. It is at once the proof of high evolution and the promise of c apable maternity. Ancient authori- ties emphasised this most prominent of all secondary sexual distinctions by saying that while in both men and women the trunk represents an ovoid figure, comparable to an egg, with a large end and a small end, in man the large end is above, in woman it is below. That is to say, that in men the diameter of the shoulders is greater than that of the hips, in women the diameter of the hips greater than that of the shoulders. This statement, as Mathias Duval and others have shown, is exaggerated. The correct formula would be expressed by saying that while in both men and women the trunk is an ovoid with the large end uppermost, in men the difference between the upper and lower ends is considerable, in women it is slight. 1 Thus, as Dr. Sargent shows for Americans between the ages of 17 and 20, the woman's hips, though relatively 4 inches larger, are absolutely smaller than man's; at the age of 20, girth of hip is in actual measurements J-inch smaller in women than in men, but if we take men and women of the same height the girth is as much as 6 inches larger in women than in men. The girth of thigh remains the only measurement that is absolutely and almost Google THE PELVIS. 55 constantly greater in women than in men, although its size largely depends upon the relatively great size of the pelvis.
The pelvis — the bony girdle of the lower part of the body — acts under very different conditions in men from those found in quadrupeds. In animals it forms an arch which supports the posterior half of the body, while at right angles to its weight-bearing axis the arch is left free to form the gate by which offspring enter the world. In man it not only sup- ports the weight of the whole of the trunk, but the weight falls in almost the same line as the axis of the exit from the body. The adaptation of the pelvis to the erect position becomes then a very delicate adjust- ment of physical forces, and as this adjustment must be carried to its highest point in women, the pelvis of women is in many respects more highly developed than that of men, which retains more animal-like characters.
The pelvis consists, above, of the hip-bones or ilia, which are in Man broadly spread out and excavated; behind, of that fused portion of the spinal column which is called the sacrum, and which terminates below in the rudimentary caudal vertebrae called the coccyx; in front, of the two pubic bones which meet to form an angle of varying degree; and underneath, of the two ischial bones which support the weight of the body in the sitting posture. All these four groups of bones which constitute the pelvis are differently arranged in man and in woman, and the differences are numerous and well-marked. 1 They may, how- 1 They have been studied in detail by numerous anatomists. The classic work of R. Verneau, Le Bassin dans Us Sexes et dans Us Races > Paris, 1875, may still be consulted. The French anatomist, Sappey, also gives a clear summary of the sexual differences. See also Garson, " Pelvimetry," Journal Anat. and Phys, % 1881. For differences in the pelvis and hips in the women of various races, see the fully illustrated chapter in Ploss and Max Bartels, Das Weil, Bd. i., p. 115; "Das weibliche Becken in anthropologisches Beziehung;" also E. Marri, "Sulla forma dei Bacini in Razze diverse," Archiv* per VAntrop,^ Google 56 MAN AND WOMAN.
ever, for the most part be easily expressed by saying that while in man the pelvis is long, narrow, and strongly built, in woman it is broad, relatively shallow, and delicately made. It is as though the compara- tively primitive and ape-like pelvis of man had been pressed outward by forces acting downward from within, with the object of enlarging the door of life for the unborn child. As usually explained by obstetrical writers, the larger pelvis of women is actually due to such a force exerted by the sexual organs which in women are contained within the pelvis. A secondary and accidental result of the broadening and opening out of the pelvis in women lies in the increased size of the thigh and the greater distance between the origins of the thigh-bones, which form such conspicuous characteristics of the female form.
Sexual differences in the pelvis become marked at a very early period, according to Fehling as soon as the bones begin to ossify. At birth, as Romiti has found, they are already distinct, more especially as regards greater breadth of the sub- pubic arch, less height of pelvis, and less straight ilia in the female. 1 Jiirgens, who studied the pelves of 25 boys and 25 girls under the age of five, found that those of the girls were markedly larger, especially in the transverse diameter. 2 While sexual differences thus appear at the earliest age, the infantile pelvis in its general aspects is long, narrow, and straight, thus approximating to the pelvis of the higher apes and the lower human races, such as Kaffirs, Australians, and Andamanese; in European children also, as Litzmann has shown, the transverse diameter of the pelvic brim closely approximates to the antero-posterior diameter, a characteristic of the lower races, while in adult Europeans the transverse 1 G. Romiti, Atti delta Soc. Toscana di Scu Nat., vol. viii., 1892. ■ Cf Beitrage zur normalen und pathologischen Anatomie des mensch- lichen Beckens," Rudolf Virchow Festschrift ', 1891.
Google THE PELVIS.
57 diameter much exceeds the anteroposterior, and in women more than in men. In nearly all respects the adult woman's pelvis is in more marked con- trast to the infant's than is the adult man's; all the lower parts are opened out instead of compressed, Google 58 MAN AND WOMAN.
the ischial spines especially being widely separated. If we compare the breadth of the pelvis to its length, as Topinard has done on a large scale to Average Andamanese Female Pelvis (adapted from Garson).
Average European Female Pelvis (adapted from Garson).
ascertain the "pelvic index," we find that with vertebrate evolution from the lower animals to European man the pelvis has constantly been Google THE PELVIS. 59 becoming broader in relation to its length, and that in women the pelvis is always broader in relation to its length than in men. " As we rise in the human series," Topinard concludes, " the pelvis enlarges, and consequently the supremely beautiful pelvis is an ample pelvis. The Greeks, by narrowing the pelvis in their sculpture, not only deprived woman of one of her most deserved characteristics, but made her bestial." 1 By the breadth of her sacrum, also, woman shows a higher degree of evolution than man. The sacrum in apes and in the lower human races is long, straight, and narrow, in harmony with the rest of the pelvis; the sacral index which expresses the degree of breadth of the sacrum shows a progressive rise from Hottentots to Europeans which culminates in European women. 2 We may gain a somewhat deeper insight into the problems that centre around the pelvis if we consider the pelvis in relation to the spinal column, and more especially in relation to the various forces which influence or modify the adoption of the completely erect position. Verticality, as Delaunay pointed out, 8, is in direct ratio with evolution and nutrition, while horizontality is in inverse ratio. The apes are but imperfect bipeds with tendencies towards the quad- rupedal attitude; the human infant is as imperfect a biped as the ape; savage races do not stand so erect as civilised races. Country people (even apart, according to Delaunay, from agricultural labour) tend 1 Topinard, Anth, G/n., pp. 1049-50.
* The gradual evolution of the female pelvis and its departure from the male type is well shown by Dr. Garson's carefully prepared diagrams of the typical Andamanese and European pelves. (See accompanying figures.) They are constructed from the average dimensions of 13 Andamanese and 14 European female pelves.
8 See his interesting observations on this subject, Etudes de Biologic Cotnparie, ie Partie, 1878, pp. 47-52; also Dr. Frank Baker's remark- able presidential address to the Anthropological Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1890) on the ascent of man to the erect position and the consequent modifications his body has undergone.
Google 60 MAN AND WOMAN.
to bend forward, and the aristocrat is more erect than the plebeian. In this respect women appear to be nearer to the infantile condition than men. " It has been observed among the natives of Ceylon," remarks Delaunay, " that the women are more curved forwards than the men. In our European societies it is easy to see that women generally do not hold themselves quite upright and walk with the body and head bent forward." The carriage of the human female to any careful observer has (except during pregnancy) a sinuous character and a forward tendril-like move- ment which is full of charm, and contrasts with the more proud and rigid, almost convex, carriage of the human male. The head tends to fall forward, and that this tendency is not due to training seems to be shown by the fact that it has an anatomical basis, as was pointed out by Cleland. From child- hood onwards the skull is slowly tilted more and more backwards in order to throw more and more of the weight behind. "The female skull," Cleland remarks, "is much less tilted back than the male, being in this, as in various other respects, more child-like than the male skull." 1 While the head is more tilted forward in women, the pelvis is also more tilted. 2 In harmony with this the anus appears to be rather farther back and nearer to the coccyx in women than in men; in the apes (and also to some extent in the child) there is a long distance between the tip of the coccyx and the anus (Cunning- ham). In certain African races, even (according to Delaunay) among the Moors, the vagina is often so far directed backwards as to render necessary the quadrupedal method of coitus. The older anthropologists used to judge of the inclination of the pelvis by the direction of the^ urinary stream in the female. A stream directed backwards is an animal-like character only found, as a rule, in the lower races; a forward direction of the 1 Cleland, "The Variations of the Human Skull," Philosophical Trans, of Roy. Soc, 1870.
• Sappey; also H. Meyer, " Die Beckenneigung," Achiv. /. Anat, 9 Google THE PELVIS. 6l stream indicates that the distinctively human upright position has reached a high degree of attainment An anatomical explanation has sometimes been given (/>., by Wernich in the case of Japanese women) for the primitive attitude of women during urination. This attitude, it may be necessary to remark, is for both sexes the opposite of the civilised; i.e. t the men squat, the women stand. This was the custom even in ancient Egypt (according to Herodotus); it was also the custom in ancient Ireland (according to Giraldus Cam- brensis). It is to-day, or wa's until lately, the custom in large part of Australia (the tfw&z-operation here makes the sitting posture more convenient for men, but it would be hazardous to suggest that this operation was ever universal), in New Zealand, throughout North America — among the Apaches, in Colorado, in Nicaragua — and in Angola and some other parts of Africa. (Some of the evidence is given in Captain J. G. Bourke's S catalogue Rites of ail Nations, 1891, pp. 148-153.) To sit on the heels is for males the orthodox Mohammedan custom.
There is no reason to suppose that anatomical considerations come in here to any marked extent; it is partly a psychological, partly a ritual matter, partly a question of clothing. In the case of Japanese women, Professor W Anderson writes to me, there is no reasonable ground to supposing any anatomical peculiarities, and he points out that the tight skirts of the women make it difficult to raise them. Mr. Tregear, one of the chief authorities on the Maoris, and Secretary of the Polynesian Society, writes to me that at the present day it is invariably the rule for both sexes amongst the Maoris to squat, but that in old times the women stood, and he makes the important observation that the girdle or mat of most primitive races makes it easy (bearing in mind the sexual difference in the position of the organs) for the women, difficult for the men, to urinate in the standing position without exposure.
Among most uncivilised races, it is a matter of religious ritual to avoid exposure of the sexual organs; the considerations of hygiene which the men among the Maoris and other races bring forward to explain their practice of squatting is merely an after- thought; the primary consideration is of a ritual character. The same consideration still prevailed when men (on account of the development of their garments, or for whatever reason) gave up the squatting position; and Hesiod recommends men to urinate before an object standing full before them, so that no divinity may be offended by their nakedness. (Works and Days, L 727 et scq.j so also Pythagoras, Laert. VIII. i. 19.) This habit has become ingrained in civilised men unto the present day, although they have long ceased to consider how the gods view the matter.
It is curious that as men began to develop this habit women Google 62 MAN AND WOMAN.
seem nearly everywhere to have adopted the custom discarded by the men. Perhaps it was fostered by the general contrari- ness of men and women, which everywhere makes men unwilling to adopt women's ways and women unwilling to adopt men's; for it is only within comparatively recent times that the develop- ment of women's garments has offered much obstacle to the primitive custom. In any case there are now but few countries where the habit is for both sexes the same, and these countries seem to be in a transition state. In most countries the habits of the sexes in this matter are opposed, and as a general rule also the practice of the more civilised countries is the reverse of the primitive practice. So far as I am aware, the evolution of these customs has never been discussed, but they are as in- structive and as wide-reaching (also as complicated) as many more dignified problems in the origin of civilisation.
The inclination of the pelvis is related to, though it is not identical with, the saddle-back or lumbo-sacral curve which in its exaggerated pathological form is called lordosis. This is only slightly marked in the ape, and does not exist in the human embryo. It is one of the superior qualities of African races, and appears to be increased by the muscular action of the back, as in rowing upright and in carrying children on the hips. It is always more pronounced in women than in men, as Duchenne first showed, 1 and is especially well marked in Spanish and Creole women, consti- tuting the main anatomical basis to their beauty of form and carriage. 2 Cunningham's 1 umbo- vertebral index shows the tendency to curvature; a high index indicates a low curve, and a low index a high degree of curvature. In the chimpanzee the index is 117, in the Australian 108, in the male Andaman 106, in the female Anda- man 105, in negroes 105, in Europeans 96, in (21) Irish males 96.2, in (22) Irish females 93.5. So that curvature increases on the whole as we ascend the scale, and tends to be somewhat greater in women. Luschka, Balandin, Charpy, Ravenel, all consider 1 Physiologic des Mouvements, 1867, pp. 726-734.
2 Art. " Ensellure," Diet, des set. Anthrop.
Google THE PELVIS. 63 that the lumbar curve is most marked in women. a Charpy points out that the § degree of the curve is in g proportion to the inclination £ of the sacrum. The sexual _ difference in the index exists ^ in most human races, but not I in the Bushman, and not at 2^.
all among the apes. Charpy rf | is of opinion that pregnancy g «j has much to do with the for- fe.S mation of the lumbar curve; °- 2 Cunningham thinks that gj carrying the child in the g jj arms and on the back is g £ still more important in wJ§ moulding it, and adds that SJ it is clearly hereditary. g t* Hottentot Bushmen have a g* very marked lumbar curve %•£ and perhaps greater obli- 8 J quity of pelvis, and the 3 3 greatest depth of the curve jjjj g-g is in them very low down. g §j In association with this gj!> greater curvature we find, if h £» we compare the bony spinal g g column of man with that of £ § woman, that the chief differ- S £ ence is the relatively greater fc - length of the lumbar region g in woman. In woman also o the curve seems to begin " higher and to attain its g summit at a higher point. gj This is a character which in g association with the greater J relative size of the abdomen Google 64 MAN AND WOMAN.
fits woman for her maternal function. While in women the lumbar region constitutes 32.8 per cent of the entire column, in men it constitutes only 31.7 per cent.; 1 while, on the other hand, the dorsal section of the column is 46.5 in men against 45.8 in women. The lumbar region of the column is thus not only longer in women than in men, but it is moulded on a different plan, being more arched and the vertebrae being moulded more distinctly in adaptation to this arch. "All these distinctions," Cunningham believes, " may be accounted for by the different habits pursued by the two sexes. There is no part of the vertebral column which is more readily moulded by the functions that the spine has to per- form, because it is that section of the column which works under the greatest degree of superincumbent pressure."
Rosenberg {Morphologisches Jahrbuch^ 1876) from his re- searches into the development of the spinal column has come to the conclusion that it is shortening in Man. The ancestral form, he considers, had 25 movable vertebrae anterior to the sacrum; now there are 24; in the future there will be only 23. In this connection he points out that on the transverse process of the first lumbar vertebra of the foetus is found the cartila- ginous rudiment of a rib which subsequently disappears through its fusion with the transverse process, suggesting that the ancestral type was a condition now most frequently found in the gibbon, 13 ribs and 25 movable vertebrae. This ancestral type is sometimes found in Man at the present day. Professor Ambrose Birmingham supports Rosenberg's view {Journal Anat. and Phys., July 1891). Wiedersheim, who also appears to support Rosenberg's view (Der Bau des Menschen % 1887), remarks that the spinal columns with the most reduced number of vertebrae always occur in women, so that women in this respect would be leading the evolutionary movement, a sup- position in harmony with the higher morphological development of the pelvis in women. Rosenberg's view, however, is not 1 These are the figures given by Professor D. J. Cunningham, who has very carefully studied the relations of the spinal column in the Cunningham Memoirs of the Royal Irish Academy, No. 2, 1886, and in " The Lumbar Section of the Vertebral Column," Journal of Anat, andPhys., Oct. 1888.
Google THE PELVIS. 65 universally accepted; thus Professor Paterson ("The Human Sacrum," Proc. Roy. Soc, 1892) does not accept it, on the ground that there is more often elongation than contraction of the region above the sacrum; but his facts and arguments, as contained in the abstract published by the Royal Society, do not clearly support his objection to Rosenberg's view, and he admits that a process of fusion is going on at the caudal end of the column.
If woman's body seems to be somewhat more reminiscent of the quadrupedal posture than man's, she has excellent reason for it There can be little doubt that, as Dr. Baker shows, in both sexes ^11 sorts of pat holog icaf and unw holeso me conditions have been encouraged or produced bythe assumption of the erect posture; it is sufficient to mention hernia, stone, ctlS ease of the vermi form jajDpfiadjx or*the intestine, varic ose v eins, exp osure of the great arteries to injury, torpidity of gall-bladder, greater constric- tion "TJf lungs and therefore inability to sustain prolonged and rapid muscular exertion, disorders of the liver from the difficulty of raising blood through the ascSftding vena cava, and the tendency to s yncope. Women share *Thes5""disabilities with men, but ^rn addition they suffer other special disadvantages. The erect position has comparatively slight effect on man's sexual organs, beyond producing a pre- disposition to scrotal varicosity and greater exposure to injury; it tends very seriously to affect woman's sexual organs, and enormously interferes with the maternal functions. " In the quadruped," as Dr. Baker remarks, "the act of parturition is comparatively easy, the pelvis offering no serious hindrance. The shape of the female pelvis is therefore the result of a compromise between two forms — one for support, the other for ease in delivery. When we reflect that along with the acquirement of the erect position the size of the head of the child has gradually increased, thus forming still another obstacle to delivery and to the adapta- tion which might otherwise have taken place, we can S Google 66 MAN AND WOMAN.
realise how serious the struggle has been, and no longer wonder that deaths in childbirth are much more common in the higher races, and that woman in her entire organisation shows signs of having suffered more than man in the upward struggle. In no other animal is there shown such a distinction between the pelvis of the male and that of the female — a distinction that increases as we ascend the scale...The frequency of uterine displacements, almost unknown in the quadruped, has also been noted, and it is significant that one of the most effective postures for treating and restoring to place the disturbed organ is the so-called 'knee-elbow position/ decidedly quadrupedal in character." * We may say, indeed, that the adoption of the erect biped position has — to use the convenient teleological method of expression — placed Nature in an awkward dilemma. On the one hand, it is necessary for the stability of the body and the due support of the organs that the pelvis should be tough, that the bony girdle should be strong and hard, and the inner channel small. On the other hand, for the higher evolution of the race it is necessary for the bony girdle to be rendered some- what less stable by the increased size of the outlet which will permit the birth of large-headed children. The most delicate adjustment is required to prevent these directly opposite necessities from conflicting with each other. If we were born through the navel (as some of us supposed when we were children) the dilemma would not exist, and there would be more genius in the world, and probably more insanity; but while such a method of parturition would be in perfect harmony with the biped position, it would 1 The numerous and marked advantages of this posture in the treatment of the diseases of women have lately been well summarised by Dr. Potter, of Buffalo, who remarks that its discovery by Marion Sims was " the turning-point in the history of gynecology." (" Posture in Obstetrics and Gynecology," Trans. Am. Soc. of Obstet. and Gynec. y Google THE PELVIS. 67 have been impracticable in the quadrupedal position. On the whole, as we know, while the adjustment is not absolutely perfect and we suffer from the dis- advantages of the biped position, the demands of the higher evolution of the race have caused, and will no doubt continue to cause, an increased expansion and development of the pelvis, a movement in which women are the natural leaders. But the children always tend to be somewhat too developed for the gate by which they enter the world; this cunningly contrived girdle of bone is a force on the side of mediocrity, shutting out the highly developed from the chances of life, although it is a force which tends to become weaker, for the size of the head depends on both parents, and the women with small pelves tend to produce still-born children or weak children unlikely to survive, and so it is not easy for them to transmit their small pelves. In the higher evolu- tion of the race the increased development of the head must always be accompanied and preceded by the increased development of the pelvis.
A word may perhaps be said here on a point which has a connection with this question usually ignored. Many writers — I think especially of Strauss {The Old Faith and the New) and Renan (Introduction to translation of Le Caniique des Cantiques) — have spoken in glowing terms of a future of humanity in which sensuality, by which they mean the sexual emotion, shall have almost disappeared, to give place to pure rationality. There is no foundation whatever for any such supposition. We do not know very much of the sexual emotion (as distinguished from sexual customs) among the lower races, but while their sexual practices are often very free, there is considerable evidence to show that their sexual instincts are not very intense. (See Ploss and Max Bartels, Das Weib, Bd. L, Chapter xiii., in which information on this point is brought together.) It would probably be found that the higher races (/.*., those with the larger pelvis) have nearly always the strongest sexual impulses. As civilisation advances abnormalities become more frequent, the individuals are multiplied in whom the sexual impulse is weak or even non-existent But these, even if healthy or highly intelligent individuals, are not the individuals who tend to propagate the race. The persons best adapted to propagate Google 68 MAN AND WOMAN.
the race are those with the large pelves, and as the pelvis is the seat of the great centres of sexual emotion the development of the pelvis and its nervous and vascular supply involves the greater heightening of the sexual emotions. At the same time the greater activity of the cerebral centres enables them to subordinate and utilise to their own ends the increasingly active sexual emotions.
Google 69 CHAPTER V.
THE HEAD.
THE SKULL— IN THE INFANT — CHIEF CAUSE OF SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN SKULL EARLY OPINIONS THE THREE CHIEF SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN SKULL — MINOR DIFFERENCES — THE CEPHALIC INDEX — THE FACE — SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN FACIAL DEVELOPMENT — THE EYE—THE FACIAL ANGLE — THE LOWER JAW — THE TEETH — CRANIAL CAPACITY — SEXUAL DIFFER- ENCES IN FRONTAL, PARIETAL, AND OCCIPITAL REGIONS OF SKULL — MAN'S SKULL APPROACHES THE SENILE, WOMAN'S THE INFANTILE TYPE.
THE BRAIN — DIFFERENCES IN BRAIN-WEIGHT — AMONG THE INSANE — THE STANDARDS OF BRAIN-WEIGHT — HEIGHT AND WEIGHT FALLACIES — WOMEN'S BRAINS PRO- PORTIONATELY LARGER THAN MEN'S — ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF A LARGE BRAIN — SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE BRAIN — SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE FRONTAL, PARIETAL, AND OCCIPITAL REGIONS OF BRAIN — BLOOD-SUPPLY OF BRAIN — THE CEREBELLUM AND OTHER CENTRES BELOW THE CEREBRUM — DEFINITE RESULTS OF STUDY OF SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE BRAIN AT PRESENT SMALL.
The study of the pelvis naturally brings us to the study of the head with which it is in such intimate relation. In studying the head we may first of all consider the skull, unimportant in itself as being merely the comparatively inert garment of the living brain, which to some extent it moulds, and by which, Google 70 MAN AND WOMAN.
to a large extent, although not in detail, it is itself moulded; at the same time we will glance at the interesting but as yet not greatly cultivated study of the face; then we will turn to the drain, unquestion- ably an organ of the first importance as being a collection of the chief nervous centres which are probably more or less concerned in every process that goes on in the organism, but unfortunately an organ which does not easily lend itself to study.
THE SKULL.
THE SKULL.
If we take up the skull of an infant we find that it is very light and very smooth, with thin, trans- lucent walls delicately veined by the blood-vessels. The orbits appear large; the lower jaw is small and shallow, and its angles very wide; the face, taken altogether, is relatively small. The parietal bones are very large, forming the greater part of the roof and a large part of the walls of the skull, and each parietal bone presents a well-marked boss, the resultant of mixed compressive forces, which gives the impression that the skull is not yet fully ex- panded. The other bones are mostly in a very undeveloped condition, and their component parts are still incompletely welded together. The bony processes and corrugations, which afterwards give a foothold to powerful muscles to support or turn the head, can scarcely be traced at all. We notice, further, that the hole through which the spinal cord emerges to enter the spinal column is placed very far back, so that when supported at this point of junction between the head and the body the head tends to fall forwards.
There would be no difficulty whatever in recog- nising an infantile skull even if it were magnified to adult proportions. But it is another matter when we turn from age-distinctions to consider the sexual Google THE HEAD. J I characters in an adult skull. Some investigators (like Aeby), though not in very recent days, have gone so far as to declare that there are no sexual differences in the skull except size. And most com- petent craniologists, like Virchow, the most dis- tinguished of all, insist that, among non-European races, it is extremely difficult to determine the sex from the skull, as the criteria furnished by one race do not hold for other races, although among some savage races (as in New Britain) the sexual differences in the skull may be " colossal." On the whole, there can be no doubt that with regard to the skull we are in the same position as Pfitzner found himself in with regard to the hand; this anatomist, after minutely investigating hundreds of skeletal hands, and after discovering marked sexual differences in their average proportions, declares that he is quite unable to distinguish a man's hand from a woman's hand. The skull is of incomparably less importance from this point of view than the pelvis. And although it is impossible to assert that differences between the skulls of men and of women are only those of size, it is extremely probable that, as Manouvrier argues, such sexual characters as may be found are due solely to the differences in general physical propor- tion; that is to say, that they depend chiefly on the greater precocity of woman and her earlier arrest of growth. It need scarcely be added that to say that