CHANGED ENGLISH FACES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, 26 October 1916, Page 5

CHANGED ENGLISH FACES.

"NARROWED AND LONGER." Before the. anthropological section of the British Association^a. few -weeks ago a plea for a physicaL census of the British people was put forward :by Professor Arthur Keith when he lectured on "Recent Modifications in the Facial Type of the English People." After tne Norman Conquest, he said,, certain definite changes, began to affect the pi-availing, type of the English countenance. The bony frame of the eye sockets^ had. become opened out and rounded. The cheek, bones, in particular, had been modified. In 80 per cent of Englishmen they had Lost their prominenca and. ang^ilarit.y. The. decadence* of the* cheek bones; was simply part of. the general reduction, which was affecting, all the parts which were concerned in the act of chewing. . One of, the most unexpected and surprising changes related to the skeleton of the nose. There was to be seen in a very considerable- proportion of modern skulls a. change in the hones of th» nasal aperture which was never seen in pre-mediaeval skulls. This change consisted in the formation of a thin, sharp -'marginal, plate of bone all round th& edge of the nasal aperture—a formation which tended to make the aperture narrow. The niost definite changes in the modern, skull referred to the jaws* gums, palate, and teeth. In every tenth modern woman and in every fifteenth modern man were to be seen, deficiencies in the development of the jaws, contractions of the palate, irregularities and diseases of the teeth, which were absolutely unknown in England in pre-Roman times.- Indeed, they did not become at all common un.til quite recent centuries. Recently he had carried out at minute comparison of the skulls of fifty, people who lived in England before the Norman conquesi with fifty skulls o£ people who lived in London during th& eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries. All the changes he had spoken of could be seen and estimated in this comparison. The English face had become narrowed and longer. His chief reason for drawing attention to these changes in our facial constitution was to urge the need for a physical survey and census of the British people.' Some years ago there, was taid to be a dearth of men phy-' sically fit to serve in the Army. Wer knew now that our men were fit* They were taller, stronger and braver than any generation of their ancestors. But when the proper time came it would be extremely important to knowwhat proportion of men were rejected, because they were physically unfit.