can fay, that the palliative system recommended by M. Portal, can only contribute to the momentary ease of the patient, or perhaps to protract existence for a few days or weeks at the fartheft. But furely if there is a time when experiments are warranted, it is in this hopeless state; if there is a time when the phyfician is warranted in departing from that cautious. practice which in all cafes, where there is any promise or expectation, he ought fteadily to purfue, it is this. In a word, it is a melancholy truth, that almoft the whole of the usual practice is found to be inefficacious in this deplorable disease ; there is none therefore which calls more urgently for the attention and inveftigation of ingenious and scientific men, and to these the work of M. Portal, though far from perfect, will doubtlefs afford confiderable affistance.

Differtation fur les Varietés Nouvelles qui characterise la Phyfognome des Hommes des divers Climats, Ouvrage de Pierre Camper.-(Continued from Vol. VII. New Arrangement, P. 487.)

A Differtation on the Natural Varieties, which characterise the Phyfiognomy of Men in different Climates, &c.

E return with pleafure to our very ingenious author, after an interval longer than we intended fhould have intervened. To the first part of our article, we must refer the reader, for the general remarks, the defign of the author, and the advantages that may attend his profound and judicious refearches. We shall now proceed without any farther introduction.

The first chapter of the fecond part contains' Obfervations on the Features of Infants viewed in Profile.' The objects of comparison are, the head of an infant just born, one of a year old, another of an adult, and another of a very old woman who had loft her teeth. From the time of the birth, the forehead projects, and the back part of the head enlarges, fo it refts on a more horizontal bafis. The upper jaw is wider and more forward. The chin enlarges and projects. The ancients ufually, in their sculpture, made the chins of their infants too long. The little diftance between the jaw and the bone of the nofe, always makes the faces of infants flat. The heads of new born infants are always longer than they are high the children of the Low Countries have their heads. longer than others, as Vefalius remarks; but, in the antiques, the head is more shortened, as the facial line falls farther forward. J. de Wit, however, though greatly celebrated for

having painted infants very gracefully, does not attend to this peculiarity: he has only fhortned the back part of the head, in raifing its upper part. If the facial line is thrown a little forward, the center of motion changes, and the heads, a little more inclined, feem more graceful. Albert Durer makes the facial line form an angle of 95°; Quefnoy and De Wit bring it forward fo as to form the angle of 100"; and, in this pofition, the height muft neceffarily be greater. The mastoid apophyfis also changes its fituation in different periods; but this is a circumftance of lefs importance.

In the adult, the nofe is more prominent; and our author chiefly notices the projection of the nafal bones, which forms the aquiline nofe; a conftruction that gives an agreeable form to the face, though neither the Negro nor the Afiatics can boast of it. For this reafon, it is never seen in the antiques, nor could the Grecian artift give it to his figure, as the nofe is always perpendicular. As the anterior part of the nofe of Europeans is wider than in other people, it seems longer than it really is, particularly in thofe who are thin. The noftrils are ufually vifible, because the bafe of the nofe is in an horizontal direction.

In old age, the teeth and the fockets both decay; and the palate, inftead of an arch, forms a plain furface: the lower jaw is not equally high, and the capacity of the mouth, which ufually contains the tongue, is greatly diminished. The nofe, lofing its fupport, becomes more aquiline; and the enlargement of the frontal finus adds to the finking of the eye. The diftance from the chin to the nofe becomes one-fixth fhorter, fo that they appear to touch each other; a circumftance, that even Rubens and De Wit have not preserved. Bloemaard followed nature, but had no idea of the physical changes: the French painter, J. B. Greuze, feems to have been equally carelefs; while Laireffe, P. Testa, and Raphael, have attended to these circumstances with the exactest care. The railing of the lower jaw draws down the angle of the mouth, and makes the flat mufcles of the neck more confpicuous. The direction of the folds or wrinkles are always at right angles to the mufcular fibres they are confequently horizontal in front; diverging in radii round the mouth and eyes; horizontal in the neck, and almoft parallel to the contour of the lower jaw. The original changes, are, however, in the bones, and these form the real character of old age.

The chapter on the form of infants' faces, feen in front,' is fhort, but curious. The eyes of infants are large and diftant, but not fo diftant as to admit of another eye between them In well-formed heads, the horizontal space beyond he eye is not more, on each fide, than half the diameter of the

eye;

eye; but, in rickety children it is greater; a proof of Buf fon's obfervation, that not only the nature of the climate, but local difeafes often change the features of men. The head of an infant then, in width, ought to be four times the diameter of each eye; in other words, capable of containing four eyes. Yet De Wit and Albert Durer make it of the width of five eyes, and this rule every painter has followed. A. Van Dyk, for inftance, has given five times the width of the eye to the head of a Chrift he painted, as an infant. All the heads of Quefnoy are in the fame proportion.

The first chapter of the third part is on the beautiful, particularly on that which refults from the features of the face. The general obfervations we fhall not tranfcribe: we did not take up M. Camper's work for that purpofe. His first object is to how, why a man, whofe ftature is eight times the length of his head, is more beautiful than another but fix times as high. A Laplander, for inftance, is more ugly than a Perfian, or a Georgian: is it owing then to this circumstance? By no means; for a child, whofe ftature is but five times the length of his head, may ftill be beautiful.' This however is fallacious reafoning: thofe who are fond of children, fee in them grace and beauty: thofe who are not, find them disproportioned, weak, and unpleafing. It is more to the purpose, when he obferves, that the beautiful confifts rather in a fuitable proportion. In the head of Apollo, of Venus, and of Laocoon, the eyes are placed exactly in the middle of the head, and the distance from the nofe to the ear, not exceeding half the length of the head; proportions the ancients always obferved, and in thefe inftances pleafing. We know they are fo, before we difcover, that, in these fame proportions, they have corrected the apparent deformities occafioned by vifion. This our author has shown at fome length; and it is fufficient to give an idea of his reafoning to remark, that, when we look on a level at a face, the lower extremities are fore-fhortened:-when we look at a statue on a pedeftal, the face is the fame: confequently, fome ftatues are eight heads and a half high. Vitruvius found the proportions of the human figure fo perfect, that he takes it for the model of buildings, in which all authors have followed him. De Wit, in his copies, which are not indeed faithful, and, in his original drawings, has given the length equal to eight times the head; but, in his figure of the woman, prefixed to his work on defigning, nine times that height. The proportions of Rubens are lefs, and this gives his figures a heavy appearance. In general, the Italian masters make their figures too low; the French much higher; and our ladies feem to agree with the latter, by adding to their heights in the ornaments of their heads, and the dimenfions of their heels.

The

The real reason of the eight heads being more pleasing is that the height is about double the bulk. The most pleafing column also, the Corinthian, is eight times the height of its capital: the Ionic we like, because it combines the idea of ftrength; and the Farnele Hercules is, for the fame reafon, pleafing, though its bulk is more than half its height.

The Laplander, the Tartar, the Hottentot, and the Brafilian, have their heads too large in proportion to their heights: they are Doric columns. The Europeans are Corinthian, and the antiques seem a mean between both. Beauty, as the ancients by their practice feemed to think, depends on rather a lengthened face; for, when looked at fidewife, as it is forefhortened at the top, it fhould not be fquare, fince, if it really was, it would not appear fo. The ancient heads are alfo lefs behind, and seldom wider than four times the diameter of the eye. In us, the distance of the eyes does not exceed the diameter of an eye: in a negro, they approach nearer, and, in a Calmuck, ftill nearer.

The form of the nofe is fuitable to the diftance of the lateral prominences of the maxillary bones: in a negro, the dif tance is too great. With us, the nofe is ufually larger than the distance of the eyes: the ancients make the distance and the fize of the nofe the fame.

The mouth should at leaft cover the incifores, and confequently is larger in proportion, as these are more diftant. The mouth, in the antiques, appears fmaller, because the chin is more pointed: it is but very little larger than the extent of the nofe. The projection of the nofe renders the upper lip fmaller in a negro, and a Kalmuck, it is the contrary. The ancients have given twice the length of the nofe, for that of the neck. It is certain, that the Apollo has but one and a half of that length; but, as the nofe is larger than usual, had the common rule been followed, the neck would have been the fame. De Wit makes the measure of the neck, in infants, one third of the measure of the nofe: Quefnoy makes them nearly equal. Another error of De Wit is, his hav ing neglected the double chin, which children conftantly

have.

The third chapter of this part is entitled 'how the proportions of the head should be established.' Our author's advice is to select the projecting points, where the bone is only covered, and thus to make the bony cranium the foundation of defigning. But for the particular management, which can fcarcely be abridged, we must refer to the work.

"If any one fhould now afk, what conftitutes a truly beautiful face? I reply, such a disposition of the features, that the facial line shall make an angle of 100° with the horizon. The ancient Greeks gave alfo the preference to this angle, though APP. VOL. XI. NEW. ARR.

Nn

their

their reafons, it is not easy to determine. Certainly such a head has never been difcovered. I do not believe it was ever found among the ancient Greeks, among the Egyptians from whom they are defcended, the Perfians, or the modern Greeks; for, when fuch faces are spoken of, no medal has ever been mentioned, no example has been produced."

"The beautiful antique then does not exift; but is fomething purely imaginary. It is what Winkelman calls the beautiful ideal, of which the Grecian artists, in their medals of the emperors, took care to preferve fome portion, while they kept as clofe, as they were able, to the features; and this character will always diftinguifh a Greek from a Roman medal."

"As there is a maximum, or a ne plus ultra, on one fide, there is also a maximum, or a ne plus ultra, on the opposite fide. When the facial angle finks to 70°, we have the features of a negro; if lower, thofe of an ape; if the angle is loft, it is the face of a dog."

"The maximum of the facial line among Europeans, is 10° before or behind the perpendicular line: on either fide, is deformity. It is, however, probable, that a negro has his kind of beauty, his maximum and minimum; but these I cannot ascertain, as I have not a fufficient number of heads of this race, nor opportunity to compare them with others. If, however, the facial line fell back to 65°; the refemblance would be too near the ape: were it to fall farther back, the ape would come too near the dog."

The ears, in general, are about the fize of the nose, that is about one-fourth of the head. They are generally near the middle, and the lobe ufually defcends a little lower than the line of the nose. De Wit makes the ears too narrow: they vary from a third to a half. The ancients generally conceal the ears they cannot be made pleasing, and they are feldom drawn correctly; for it is a difficult task, and one generally neglected.

The fourth part is on the principles, by means of which a head may be properly drawn. He here fpeaks of the oval, the triangle for profiles, and his own method, already hinted at, by means of the skeleton. All thefe, however, require plates to render them intelligible.

To the tranflation, which we have preferred, is added, as we formerly obferved, a differtation on the most convenient forms of shoes, of which we shall fubjoin a short account. It originated from an obfervation of Poffidonius, who obferved, that shoes were probably invented and brought to perfection by philofophers. Our author is of a different opinion, and apologizes for his attempt, by obferving, that we attend minutely to the fhoes of animals, and neglect our own. 'We

lament,