578 ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 



taken through the long diameter of the pubic symphysis, is the 

 complementary angle of the sacro-vertebral one in the female, 

 owing to the general parallelism of the pubic with the sacral 

 wall of the ^true pelvis.' The ' axis of the brim ' is the line I m, 

 drawn from the centre of the superior plane at right angles 

 thereto. The ^ axis of the inferior outlet,' n p, is drawn at 

 right angles to the centre of the inferior plane. The axis of the 

 pelvic cavity, I o r p,is an irregular parabolic curve, passing from 

 the fixed axis of the brim and moveable forward, through the 

 flexibility of the coccyx at its inferior extremity, with the move- 

 able axis of the inferior outlet, with which it coincides below. ^ 



The observed range of variety in the Human pelvis is restricted 

 to some slight difference in the breadth and curve of the sacrum, 

 in the contour of the iliac crest (fig. 397, a, c, b), in the interspace 

 between the ant. -superior, a, and ant. -inferior, d, spines,^ and in 

 proportions that modify the shape of the upper aperture of the 

 * true pelvis,' w^hereby it might be approximately defined as ' oval,' 

 ' oblong,' ' round,' or even approaching to ' quadrate.' Accord- 

 ing to my experience, these are not characteristic of race, nor 

 uniformly concomitant with cranial varieties, as, e. g. the ' round ' 

 pelvis with the ' brachycephalic,' the ' oblong ' mth the * dolicho- 

 cephalic,' or the * square ' with the ' pyramidal ' form of skulL^ 

 Vrolik^ has noted a more vertical direction of the ilia, and the 

 proximity of the highest part of the crest to the posterior superior 

 spine, in the pifelvis of a Negro : I have noted the smaller and nar- 

 rower iliac bones of an Australian female as compared with an 

 European ;^ but the size accorded with a general dwarfishness of 

 stature, and the difference of proportion was too slight to affect 

 the characteristic human confio-uration of the bone. Save in 



o 



regard to Europeans, the requisite number of observations of the 

 pelvis in the same races or tribes of mankind is yet a desideratum. 

 In the typical Mammalian foot the digits decrease from the 

 middle to the two extremes of the series of five toes ; and in the 

 modifications of this type, as traced through the gradations (p. 308, 

 fig. 193), the innermost, i, is the first to disappear. In Man it is 

 the seat of excessive developement, and receives the name of ' hal- 

 lux,' or ' great toe ;' it retains, how ever, its characteristic inferior 

 number of phalanges. The tendons of a powerful muscle, which 

 in the Orangs and Chimpanzees are inserted into the three middle 

 toes, are blended in Man into one, and this is inserted into the 

 hallux, upon which the force of the muscle now called ^ flexor 

 longus hallucis ' is exclusively concentrated. 



' cv. pp. 133-135. ' XLiv. p 839 (Polynesian). ^ cvi'. 



* cvir. •■* XLiv. p. 806. 



