To judge the comparative strength of the higher and lower elements of character, we look for the height above the forehead and the depth at and behind the ear, which is ascertained by placing the hand on the base of the cranium behind the ears, while the height of the head is best appreciated by placing a hand on the top with the fingers reaching down to the brow.
In a profile view the human head may be divided into three equal parts, the length of the nose being the central part, from the nose to the end of the chin another, and the remainder above the nose the third part. In inferior heads these three measurements are equal, the upper third extending to the top of the head; but in heads of superior character the upper third extends only to the top of the forehead, and the outline of the head rises a half breadth above the forehead, as the following profiles show. In heads of the lowest character the basilar depth exceeds the height, as in the French Count and the Indian Lewis.
The contour of a well-developed head forms a semicircle above the base line through the brow, and its elevation above that line is equal to one half of the antero-posterior length of the head, while in the inferior class of heads the elevation is but four-tenths of the length or even less, and is hardly equal to the depth, while in the highest class the elevation is one-half greater than the depth or even more. We obtain another view of the comparative height and depth by drawing lines from the brow to the vertex and the base of the brain and comparing the two angles thus formed. In the good head we observe the great superiority of the upper angle over that formed by the line to the ear, the lower end of which corresponds to the lowest part of the brain, the base of the cerebellum.
To take an illustration from nature, I would present the outlines of two Indian crania that I obtained in Florida,--Vacca Pechassee, or the cow chief, who headed a small tribe, and bore a good character among the whites, and Lewis, an Indian of bad character in the same neighborhood (on the Appalachicola River), who was shot for his crimes. (I might have obtained many more, but as the Seminole war was not then over, I found that my own cranium was placed in considerable danger by my explorations.)