The Descent of Man

was 3.15 and the latter 4.3 inches in length. (85.
'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,'
vol. i. p. 117, on the elongation of the
skull; p. 119, on the effect of the lopping of one
ear.) One of the most marked distinctions in
different races of men is that the skull in some
is elongated, and in others rounded; and here
the explanation suggested by the case of the
rabbits may hold good; for Welcker finds that
short "men incline more to brachycephaly, and
tall men to dolichocephaly" (86. Quoted by
Schaaffhausen, in 'Anthropological Review,'
Oct. 1868, p. 419.); and tall men may be compared
with the larger and longer-bodied rabbits,
all of which have elongated skulls or are
dolichocephalic.
From these several facts we can understand, to
a certain extent, the means by which the great
size and more or less rounded form of the skull
have been acquired by man; and these are cha-