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I. The general contour of the back of the nose is expressed by the following five terms: Concave, straight, convex, highbridged, and sinuous. These form five main classes which can be variously subdivided.

1. The concave nose. The various kinds of concave or depressed nose agree in having a low bridge; this, as we have already seen, is a simian or ape-like character; it is also an embryonic feature, and it commonly occurs among young children. This type of nose is very frequently met with among the yellow races, and is not infrequent among women of the higher races.

This type may be defined in general terms as being short, depressed, broad, with a turned-up point.

2. The straight nose. The ridge of the nose is quite straight in the most characteristic forms, but it is often slightly sinuous. The nose may be short, low, and broad; but in the most developed type it is long, prominent, and

narrow.

3. The convex nose. The ridge or back of the nose describes a nearly uniform convex curve from the root to the point. As in the last instance this type varies from short, low, and broad, to long, prominent, and narrow. The Jewish nose is the best-known variety, and the Papuan nose belongs to the broad variety of this group.

4. The high-bridged nose. The upper portion of the bony part presents a strong and short convexity, below which the remainder of this bony part becomes nearly straight, and is continuous with the ridge of the gristly portion. The typical example of this type is the Roman nose (Fig. 10). It may be considered as a variety of the convex nose.

5. The sinuous nose. The upper part is convex, but the profile of the gristly portion, instead of continuing this curve as in the convex nose, or of taking a rectilinear direction as in the aquiline nose, is incurved. It thus results that the

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Types of Noses in Profile; from Topinard.

1. Straight, with a horizontal base; 2. convex or aquiline, with a depressed base; 3. concave or retroussé, with a reflected base; 4. high-bridged or busqué; 5. sinuous; 6. Melanesian type, broad, with the lower part forming a flattened and depressed hook; 7. short, broad, nearly straight type of the African Negroes; 8. straight, flat type of the Yellow Races.

direction of the line is convex above, concave below the bony portion, and again convex towards the tip. It is thus sinuous or undulating.

The sinuous nose may be considered as a variety of the concave, straight, or convex nose,

according as the totality of the line of the ridge presents a hollow, a general rectilinear direction, or a protruding curve. It is advisable that the description should always be so qualified. Without going into further detail we may now pass on to the second factor:

II. The inclination of the base of the nose may form a right angle with the line of the upper

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FIG. 10.

lip or a greater or a less angle Head of Agrippa, Museo di Nawith it; thus we have:poli; from Hovorka. 1. A reflected base. 2. A horizontal base. 3. A depressed base.

Any of these three conditions may occur with any variety of contour, but certain combinations are of more frequent recurrence than others. For example, the concave nose is usually reflected to form the snub nose, and the convex nose is either horizontal or depressed, the latter being the more typical of the Jewish nose. A concave, depressed nose is exceptional. A rectilinear nose with a horizontal base, and one in which the root is slightly marked so that the line of the forehead passes gently into that of the nose, constitutes the classical nose of Greek statues. As a matter of fact this feature was seized upon and exaggerated by certain Greek sculptors, the contours of the nose and forehead being alike falsified so as to give increased nobility to the expression.

The majesty of the brow of Zeus, the wielder of the destinies of men, was due to an overstepping of human contours, as these in their turn, in the dim ages of the past, had passed beyond the low outlines of the brute.

FIG. II.

A, Head of Zeus Otricoli; B, the Same, with all the Hair Removed, and with a Corrected Profile; from Hovorka, after Langer.

A reflected base to a straight nose gives it a piquancy that was happily expressed by Tennyson when he wrote':

"A damsel of high lineage, and a brow

May-blossom, and a cheek of apple-blossom,
Hawk eyes; and lightly was her slender nose
Tip-tilted like the petal of a flower."

2

Bertillon has collected numerous statistics on the contours of noses, and he finds there is a marked transformation

1 Gareth and Lynette.

2 A. Bertillon, "De la Morphologie du Nez," Rev, d'Anthrop, (3), ii., 1887, P. 158.

of the nose due to the influence of age which results in a kind of effacement and depression of the tip, as is seen in the following table, in which the numbers of subjects examined are reduced to 1000:

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It is seen that the reflected noses sink from 418 in young people to 146 in people in middle life, while the depressed noses correspondingly rise from 44 to 141. In both instances the proportion is about one to three.

In order to obtain results which can be accurately compared with one another, measurements are made of the nose and an index is selected. The nasal index of the living is obtained by multiplying the breadth of the nose by one hundred and dividing the product by the height of the nose. The index, as is usually done in such cases, is divided into three classes, narrow, medium, and broad. In scientific terminology these are called:

Leptorhine...

Mesorhine..

Platyrhine..

below 70

70 to 85

above 85

Speaking in general terms, there are, according to Topinard,' two extreme types of human nose-the low, broad, 'P. Topinard, "Documents sur l'indice nasal du vivant," L'Anthropologie, ii., 1891, p. 273.

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