class the elevation is one-half greater than the depth or even more.
We obtain another view of the comparative height and depth by drawing
lines from the brow to the vertex and the base of the brain and
comparing the two angles thus formed. In the good head we observe the
great superiority of the upper angle over that formed by the line to
the ear, the lower end of which corresponds to the lowest part of the
brain, the base of the cerebellum.
[Illustration]
To take an illustration from nature, I would present the outlines of
two Indian crania that I obtained in Florida,--Vacca Pechassee, or the
cow chief, who headed a small tribe, and bore a good character among
the whites, and Lewis, an Indian of bad character in the same
neighborhood (on the Appalachicola River), who was shot for his
crimes. (I might have obtained many more, but as the Seminole war was
not then over, I found that my own cranium was placed in considerable
danger by my explorations.)
[Illustration: VACCA PECHASSEE]
[Illustration: LEWIS]
In Vacca Pechassee the height is to the depth as 11 to 9; in Lewis as
9 to 11. In J. R. Smith the height is to the depth as 12 to 10; in the
slave trading count as 9 to 14. This is the correct method of cranial
study, for comparing the moral and animal nature.
The basilar depth was entirely overlooked in the old method of
phrenologists, and hence they were very often mistaken in judging the
basilar energy by breadth alone, of which there has been no more
striking example than that of the Thugs of India, whose heads (though
a tribe of murderers) were below the European average in basilar
breadth. These facts are so conspicuous to any careful observer that I
became very familiar with them in the first six months of my study of
heads fifty-two years ago.
When the circulation of the brain is vigorous and regular, all
portions being in regular activity, the fulness of the circulation
being shown in the face, we may be sure that the character is fairly
indicated by the cranium. The younger the individual the thinner the
cranium, and the less the liability to deception by the thickness of
the bones. Female skulls are _generally_ more delicate than male, and
also more normal or uniform in their circulation. Hence there is less
difficulty in making an accurate estimate of women and of youth. The
greater difficulty is found in men of thick skulls and abnormal
brains, and these difficulties are in some cases insur
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