George Stimpson

The apertures of the eyes of Chinese, Japanese and other members of the yellow race are not more slanted or oblique than are those of Caucasians. The slant-eyed effect is produced by the low nose bridge, which permits the upper eyelids to fold and gives each eye a slit appearance. In reality the eyes of Orientals are not so far off a true horizontal as the eyes of Occidentals. Often white children at birth have eyes with a similar Mongolian slant, and if the nasal bridge develops slowly this appearance may persist for months. But the so-called "Mongolic fold" is not due to the eyes' being obliquely set but to the difference in the level of the two canthi of each eye—the points on each side where the upper and lower eyelids come together. This slant-eyed effect is noticeable among many American Indian and quite pronounced among the Eskimos.