CERTAIN CIL^PwVCTERISTICS PERTAINING TO ANCIENT MAN IN 



MICHIGAN. 



By Henry Gillman. 



In a former paper, entitled "The Monndbuilders and Platycuemism in 

 Micbigan," and which was printed in the Smithsonian Eeport lor 1873, 

 reference was made to the discovery by the writer of perforated humeri 

 in the mounds on the Detroit and Eouge Rivers, Michigan. In a subse- 

 quent paper* occasion has been taken to give some fartlier statements 

 in regard to tliis peculiarity ; its being a characteristic of platycnemic 

 man, as thus absolutely established, being dwelt on as of importance. 



The humeri from these mounds presenting the curious feature referred 

 to I have calculated as being, at the least, 50 per cent, of the entire ; 

 which is of much interest taken in connection with the fact of the ex- 

 traordinary development of platycuemism afforded from the same source. 

 The perforation is considered to belong to only 31 per cent, of the humeri 

 from the mounds in other parts of the country, and, as has been stated, 

 is a Simian characteristic, which, significantly enough, is found to per- 

 tain in the largest degree to the lower races of man, while it is very 

 rare or almost absent in the Caucasian. 



The term " perforation" of the humerus, as applied to this form of arm- 

 bone, in which the fossne at the lower end are found to communicate, is 

 certainly an unfortunate one, a misnomer, and, as suggestive of artificial 

 origin, calculated to mislead, though it is not easy to propose a substi- 

 tute. 



In this connection I have thought it may prove of interest to figure 

 some of these specimens found by me at the Rouge River ; and in the 

 accompanying cut (Fig. 1) I give a representation of the lower extremity 

 of a perforated left humerus from tlie Great Mound there, to which I have 

 so often had occasion to refer. It is of full size, and the posterior sur- 

 face is shown. 



This is a good example of the peculiarity, the opening being large 

 and strongly defined; and though the bone is apparently of great antiq- 

 uity and much decayed, the proximal end having totally disappeared, 

 the articular surface is well preserved all along the outline of the aper- 



*■ "The Ancient Mou of the Great Lakes," by Henry Gilhnan. Head before the De- 

 troit meeting of the Amocican Association for the Advancement of Science, August 16, 

 1875. See note, " Perforation of the Humerus conjoined with Platycnemism," American 

 Naturalist, vol. ix, x). 427. 



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