the Frankish period, and the influence of the foreign race has now disappeared from the mean nasal index. Concerning the nasal bones it may be noted that among the white races they are usually arched and prominent; among the yellow races, the Malays and the Negroes, they are flat. They are often, in addition, short and very broad among the Negroes, and fre The lower border of the Apertura pyriformis of Orang-utan; from Hovorka. quently long and narrow among the Chinese. The bridge of the nose is almost always flat in infants, and as we have just seen it usually remains so in the lower races, and it frequently also persists in this condition in women of higher races. Lastly, I must draw attention to the variations that occur in the lower margin of the apertura pyriformis. In the apes the floor of the nasal cavity passes insensibly on to the surface of the upper jaw, and there is consequently no definite inferior border to the nasal aperture. This condition may obtain among human skulls, and it is known by the name. of simian groove. Of more frequent occurrence than the last is the condition which is characteristic of the human infant, in which the floor of the nasal chamber passes by a variable but distinct angle on to the surface of the maxilla. This is termed the forma infantilis. The characteristic human condition is that in which the lower border of the pyriform aperture is formed FIG. 15. The four types of the lower border of the Apertura pyriformis in man; a. Forma anthropina (Lower Austrian, 30 years old); b. Fossæ prenasales by a distinct thin ridge which sharply cuts off the floor of the nasal cavity from the alveolar portion of the maxilla. This is the forma anthropina. In some skulls there is a pair of depressions immediately external to the lower border of the apertura pyriformis. These are known as the fosse prenasales. It frequently happens that a skull with a forma infantilis may be transitional between the simian groove on the one hand or between a forma prenasalis or a forma anthropina on the other. No well-defined limits separate these various conditions. Hovorka* gives the following statistics concerning the distribution of these varieties among various peoples: Speaking in general terms one may say that the simian groove is most frequent in the negroes, Australians, and the black races generally. The infantile condition is common among negroes, the yellow races, and Southern Europeans. The fossa prenasales are also frequent among the yellow races, while the forma anthropina is characteristic of the Northern Europeans.† * O. Hovorka (Edl. von ZDERAS) Die Æusserę Nase, eine anatomisch-anthropologische Studie, Vienna, 1893. (This paper contains an extensive bibliography.) + Since the above was in type, Professor A. Macalister has written a paper on "The Apertura pyriformis" (Journ. Anat. and Phys., xxxii., January, 1898, p. 223), in which he describes these four conditions, to which he gives the following names: Orygmocraspedote (simian groove), Amblycraspedote (forma infantilis), Bothrocraspedote (fossæ prenasales), Oxycraspedote (forma anthropina). I CHAPTER V. THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE DORDOGNE DISTRICT. HAVE previously alluded to the brilliant ethnographical work done by Dr. Collignon,* and I have made an abstract of his researches in the Dordogne District of West Central France in order to demonstrate the lines upon which such inquiries should be conducted, and to illustrate the results that follow from a blending of anthropological investigations with the records of history. We have here a very happy example of an anthropological analysis which supplies the data for a subsequent historical synthesis. The region under consideration consists partly of the calcareous beds, and partly of primitive rocks of the Central Plateau of France; the limiting line between them is shown on map (Fig. 19); to the east it passes into the mountainous mass of Auvergne. The five Departments which constitute this region are traversed from east to west by the gradually decreas * R. COLLIGNON, "Anthropologie de la France: Dordogne, Charente, Corrèze, Creuse, Haute-Vienne," Mém. Soc. d'Anth. de Paris (3), i., 1894. ing elevations of the Limousin Mountains, which serve as barriers between the three basins of the Dordogne, or rather of its right affluents the Dronne, Isle, Vézère, and Corrèze; of the Charente and of INSORE CHER.. FIG. 16. Sketch Map of the Dordogne District. the left affluents of the Loire, the Vienne, Gartempe, Creuse, and Cher. A line running roughly north and south, starting at the junction of Charente and HauteVienne and passing not far to the east of Périgueux, would separate the fertile district to the west from the |