The cheek-bones may be little developed (Europeans) or very prominent (Mongolians, Figs. [17] and [20]; Bushmen, Fig. [24], etc.), but cheek-bones projecting forward must be distinguished from those developed laterally. The chin may be pointed, rounded, square, projecting, retreating (Fig. [15]), but these variations are of little importance, and may be found in conjunction with the most diverse forms of the face, while giving to it its own character. The posterior angles of the lower jaw may be more or less wide, and thus help to produce the angular contour of the face; quadrangular in the case of the square chin (Fig. [121]), or with pentagonal contour in the case of the pointed chin (Fig. [118]).
The eyes furnish also some differences of form. We distinguish the ordinary eye, as in our countries, and the oblique or narrowed Mongolian eye. The latter presented in its most perfect form is characterised as follows. It is placed obliquely, so that its external angle is higher than its inner angle (Fig. [121]). This disposition is due to the too high attachment of the external palpebral ligament to the skull, as Regalia has shown.[72] Its palpebral aperture is much narrower than in the ordinary eye, and instead of having the form of an almond, it has rather that of a scalene triangle (Figs. [18] and [118]) or of a little fish whose head corresponds to the inner angle (Fig. [119]). But these peculiarities are not the most important, and may be met with, though rarely, in ordinary eyes. The essential characters of the Mongolian eye consist, as Metchnikof[73] has shown, in a puffiness of the upper eyelid, which turns down at the inner angle of the narrowed eye, and, instead of being free, as in the ordinary eye, is folded towards the eyeball, forming a fixed fold in front of the movable ciliary edge; this last becomes invisible and the eyelashes are scarcely seen. Moreover, towards the inner angle of the eye, the eyelid forms a fold covering more or less the caruncula, and sometimes extending more or less far below (Fig. [18]). These peculiarities, which can be met with quite often among the children of all races as a transitory characteristic, may be explained up to a certain point by the very small development of the pilous system in general in people among whom they persist. For among Europeans, for instance, the inversion of the eyelid (entropion) may become a cause of disease (trichiasis) precisely on account of the growth of the eyelashes.[74]
FIG. 18.—Eye of a young Kalmuk girl of Astrakhan.
Example of Mongoloid eye
(from nature).
Sometimes this puffiness only extends to the outer part of the eyelid; we have thus a variety of the Mongolian eye, with a palpebral triangular opening, very frequent among the eastern Finns (Fig. [106]) and the Turco-Tatar populations.
FIG. 19.—Welsh type of Montgomeryshire.
Eyes and hair dark.
(Photo. and particulars, Beddoe.)
The nose, by the variety and the fixity of its forms, presents one of the best characters for distinguishing races. We can express by means of the nasal index of Broca its width (measured by just touching the alæ of the nose) in relation to its length (from the root to the sub-nasal spine) supposed = 100. This index varies in the proportion of one to three (from 40 to 120), according to race. Among the platyrhinians, the breadth of the nose exceeds 85 (Fig. [14]); among the leptorhinians, this breadth is less than 70 (Fig. [16]); lastly, among the mesorhinians, it oscillates between 70 and 85, according to the nomenclature of R. Collignon. [75] I give in [Appendix III]. a table of the nasal indices of the principal populations; I have only introduced into it series of more than ten individuals, whose measurements have been taken according to the Broca-Collignon method, explained above.[76]