I 32 THE MISMEASURE OF MANDolichocephaly, Broca reasoned, could be attained in several
ways. The longheadedness that served as a mark of Teutonic
genius obviously arose by frontal elongation. Dolichocephalics
among people known to be inferior must have evolved by length-
ening the back—occipital dolichocephaly in Broca's terms. With
one sweep, Broca encompassed both the superior cranial capacity
and the dolichocephaly of his Cro-Magnon fossils: "It is by the
greater development of their posterior cranium that their general
cranial capacity is rendered greater than ours" (1873a, p. 41). As
for blacks, they had acquired both a posterior elongation and a
diminution in frontal width, thus giving them both a smaller brain
in general and a longheadedness (not to be confused with the Teu-
tonic style) exceeded by no human group. As to the brachycephaly
of Frenchmen, it is no failure of frontal elongation (as the Teutonic
supremacists claimed), but an addition of width to a skull already
admirable.
THE CASE OF THE FORAMEN MAGNUM
The foramen magnum is the hole in the base of our skull. The
spinal cord passes through it and the vertebral column articulates
to the bone around its edge (the occipital condyle). In the embryol-
ogy of all mammals, the foramen magnum begins under the skull,
but migrates back to a position behind the skull at birth. In
humans, the foramen magnum migrates only slightly and remains
under the skull in adults. The foramen magnum of adult great
apes occupies an intermediate position, not so far forward as in
humans, not so far back as in other mammals. The functional sig-
nificance of these orientations is clear. An upright animal like Homo
sapiens must have its skull mounted on top of its vertebral column in
order to look forward when standing erect; fourfooted animals
mount their vertebral column behind their skull and look forward
in their usual posture.
These differences provided an irresistible source for invidious
comparison. Inferior peoples should have a more posterior fora-
men magnum, as in apes and lower mammals. In 1862 Broca
entered an existing squabble on this issue. Relative egalitarians like
James Cowles Pritchard had been arguing that the foramen mag-
num lies exactly in the center of the skull in both whites and blacks.
Racists like J. Virey had discovered graded variation, the higher