OUR FACES CHANGING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18898, 26 June 1923, Page 9

OUR FACES CHANGING.

Evolution is not working in the direction of super-men, with swollen heads and small faces. In some countries there is positive evidence that the brain is growing smaller. In an address on “The Machinery ox Human Evolution” at the Royal Institution in London recently, Sir Arthur Keith, F.R.S., the famous anthropologist, said changes were now taking place in the human world more rapidly 'than at any former period—but the days of super-men were not yet. Sir Arthur, one of the most brilliant scientists of the day, himself went into the jungle recently to study the brains of gibbons and gorillas. The brain, he said, was the most variable in size and quality of all the parts of the body, and from investigation ho had come to the conclusion that it was not increasing. “I do not think,” said Sir Arthur, “that one person in 50 of the present population used his brains to half its capacity. In fact, I would say that most of us have more brains than wo knew what to do with.” Were we getting taller or shorter in stature? he asked. During the war it was found that the average stature for a man was sft bin —the same as in he Neolithic period. The average for men leading professional lives was sft Sin.

“Wo had ceased to speak of the C 3 part of our population,” said Sir Arthur, “but it is still with us. It was cold comfort to know that every industrial country of the world was no worse and no better off in this respect than than we were. We give our digestive tracts no rest. When we are not whipping them up with patent sauces we are seeking to soothe their rebellions by treating them with patent pills.” Sir Arthur said he was convinced that certain characteristics, which were easilv recognisable in -the bodies of a large proportion of our modern population, were of recent origin. The most plastic bone in the human body was that under the gums in which the teeth wore rooted, and it waa here that the most marked changes were to be noted. In quite 30 per cent, of the people now in Great Britain this bone, instead of spreading outwards, and giving the roof of the mouth a wide and low vault, as in prehistoric races, grew in a vortical direction, giving the palate a narrow and high arch. In these contracted palates there was no longer room for the normal number of teeth. Such as appeared were crowded; the wisdom teeth often failed to cut or were absent altogether. The lower front teeth, instead of meeting the upper in an edge-to-edge bite, passed behind them, giving rise to the prevalent, “scissors” bite. The recession of the teeth gave the modern noso and chin an undue prominence: the tendency of all modern changes was towards the production of a long and narrow face. The “adenoid” type of face, with which medical men were so familiar in modern children, was unknown in prehistoric times.