| Organs to which the characteristics refer | Dolichocephalic, brunette type of low stature | Brachycephalic, blond type of tall stature |
|---|---|---|
| Visage. | Elongated ellipsoidal or ovoidal; fine, delicate lineaments, rounded curves, softly modeled. | Rounded, broad; coarse features; contour frequently angular, especially around the cheek-bones. |
| Eyes. | Large, usually almond-shaped; pigmentation brown, shading from black to chestnut. | Not so large, the form frequently tending to the oblique; the contours of the inner angle of the eye less clear-cut, owing to the plica epicantica. Pigmentation light gray, blue. |
| Nose. | Very leptorrhine; nostrils delicate and mobile. | Leptorrhine, tending toward mesorrhine; sometimes the nose is fleshy, nostrils thick and slightly movable only. |
| Mouth. | Labial aperture small, lips finely modeled and very red. | Labial aperture wide, lips frequently fleshy, and not well modeled. |
| Teeth. | Small, with curved surface, gleaming, almost as wide as long, not greatly dissimilar, "like equal pearls." | Teeth large and flat, enamel dull; difference between incisors, canines, etc., sharply marked. |
| Palate. | Very high and narrow (ogival). | Flat and wide. |
| Profile. | Proopic. | Platyopic. |
| Ear. | Finely modeled, small, delicate. | Often irregular, large, thick. |
| Frontal line of roots of hair. | Very distinct; forehead small. | Indistinct; forehead protuberant. |
| Neck. | Long and slender, flexible. | Short, more or less stocky. |
| Thorax. | Flattened in antero-posterior direction. | Projecting forward. |
| Breasts. | Position low, form tending to pear-shape; nipples slightly raised, aureole broad; often hairy between the breasts. | Position high, breasts round; nipple prominent, aureole small and rose-colored; always hairless. |
| Pelvis and abdomen. | High and narrow; the abdomen becomes prominent toward the thirtieth year, even in unmarried women. | Low and broad; the abdomen does not become prominent. |
| Lumbar curve. | Slightly pronounced; position of buttocks low. | Quite pronounced; position of buttocks high. |
| Limbs. | Distal portion slightly shorter (as compared with the proximal) limbs slender. | Distal portion slightly longer (as compared with the proximal); limbs well endowed with muscles. |
| Hands. | Coarse; palm long and narrow; fingers short. | Delicate, palm broad, fingers long. |
| Fingers. | Short, thick, with flattened extremities; nails flat, not very pink nor very transparent. | Long, tapering; nails with deep placed quicks, rosy and shinning. |
| Palmar and digital papillæ | Coarse; frequently with geometric figures on the finger tips; pallid. | Very fine, rosy and with open designs. |
| Feet. | Big; form tending to flatness. | Small, much arched. |
| Body as a whole. | Slender; slight muscularity. Tendency toward stoutness in old age with deformation of the body. | Beautiful; strong muscle. No tendency toward too much flesh. Furthermore, the body preserves its contours. |
| Complexion. | Brunette and dark. | White. |
| Color of hair. | Black to chestnut. | Blond. |
| Form of hair. | Short, always wavy or curly, fine with ellipsoidal section. | Long, straight, section slightly elliptical and sometimes almost round. |
| Hair on body. | Growth of hair sometimes found on thorax and on the found on thorax and on the legs. | The surface of the body is hairless. |
The Origin of Malformations during Development.—Malformations are a morphological index, and we have already shown that there is a relation between the physical and the psychical personality. A defective physical development tells us that the psychic personality must also have its defects (especially in regard to the intelligence).
Not only degenerates, but even we normal beings, in the conflict of social life, and because of our congenital weaknesses, have felt that we were losing, or that we were failing to acquire the rich possibilities latent in our consciousness, and that vainly formed the height of our ambition. And when this occurred, the body also lost something of the beauty which it might have attained, or rather, it lacked the power to develop it. In the words of Rousseau, "Our intellectual gifts, our vices, our virtues, and consequently our characters, are all dependent upon our organism."
Nevertheless, this interrelation must be understood in a very wide sense, and is modified according to the period of embryonal or extrauterine life at which a lesion or a radical disturbance in development chances to occur. In a treatise entitled The Problems of Degeneration, in which the most modern ideas regarding degeneration are summed up, and new standards of social morality advocated, Brugia gives a most graphic diagram, which I take the liberty of reproducing.
- A fertilized ovum
- B embryo
- C fœtus and new-born child
- D child
From the little black point to the big circle are represented the different stages of embryonal and fœtal development, until we reach the child. In A we have the fertilized ovum. Here it may be said that the new individual does not yet exist; we are at a transition point between two adults (the parents) and a new organism, which is about to develop. Now comes the embryo, which may be called the new individual in a potential state; then the fœtus, in which the human form is at last attained; and lastly the child, which will proceed onward toward the physical and spiritual conquests of human life. But so long as an individual has not completely developed, deviations may occur in his development; but these will be just so much the graver, in proportion as the individual is in a more plastic state.
We should reserve the term degeneration, real and actual, to that which presupposes an alteration at A, i.e., at the time of conception. An alteration all the graver if it antedates A, that is to say, if it preexisted in the ovum and in the fertilizing spermatozoon, i.e., in the parents. In this case, there is no use in talking of a direct educative and prophylactic intervention on behalf of the individual resulting from this conception; the intervention must be directed toward all adult individuals who have attained the power of procreation. And in this consists the greatest moral problem of our times—sexual education and the sentiment of responsibility toward the species. All mankind ought to feel the responsibility toward the posterity which they are preparing to procreate and they ought to lead a life that is hygienic, sober, virtuous, and serene, such as is calculated to preserve intact the treasures of the immortality of the species. There exist whole families of degenerates, whose offspring are precondemned to swell the ranks of moral monsters. These individuals, who result from a wrongful conception, carry within them malformations of the kind known as degenerative, and together with them alterations of the moral sense that are characteristic of degenerates, that is to say, they will be unbalanced (through inheritance) in their entire personality.
Something similar will happen if such a lesion befalls the embryo, i.e., while the individual is still in the potential state (lacking human form). In the fœtus, on the contrary, i.e., the individual who has attained the human form but is still in the course of intrauterine development, any possible lesion, and more especially those due to pathological causes, while they cannot alter the entire personality, may injure that which is already formed, and in so violent a manner as to produce a physical monster, whose deformities may even be incompatible with life (e.g., cleft spine or palate, hydrocephaly, Little's disease, which is a form of paralysis of fœtal origin, and all the teratological (i.e., monstrous) alterations). That is to say, in going from A to C we pass from malformations to deformations; from simple physical alterations of an æsthetic nature to physical monstrosities sometimes incompatible with life itself; while in regard to the psychic life, we find that the remoter lesions (in A) result for the most part in anomalies of the moral sense, while those occurring later (B, C) result for the most part in anomalies of the intellect. So that at one extreme we may have moral monsters, with malformations whose significance can be revealed only through observation guided by science and at the other extreme, physical monsters, whose moral sense is altered only slightly or not at all. Those who suffer injury at A may be intelligent, and employ their intelligence to the malevolent ends inspired by moral madness; those who suffer injury at C or D are harmless monsters, often idiots, or even foredoomed to die. The peril to society steadily diminishes from A to C, while the peril to the individual steadily augments.
Over all these periods so full of peril to human development and so highly important for the future of the species, we may place one single word: