2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



ternal part of the femoral cliaphysis and running parallel to the long 

 axis of the same.' The borders of this hollow, as well as the rough 

 surface of its floor, served, he thought, for the attachment of the 

 terminal fibers of the great gluteal muscle.^ The fossa, he said further, 

 may exist alone or be associated with a third trochanter. He found 

 it to be " a constant character " of the femora of the upper paleolithic 

 of Furfooz, Belgium, and frequent in those of similar age of France ; 

 but it was less frequent in the neolithic age, and " positively rare in 

 pronounced form in modern man." * The data of Houze (imperfectly 

 summed up later by Pearson and BelP), were as follows: 



With 

 Femora hypotroclianteric 



examined fossa 



(341) Percent 



Early man : Furfooz 20 100.- 



Grenelle 21 57.- 



Cro-Magnon 2 ( 100) 



Madeleine i ( 100) 



Neolithic of Belgium and France no 44.- 



Merovingian 30 23.- 



Modern, Bruxelles 67 10.5 



Modern, Bruxelles : 10 male 10 



10 female 10 



Canary Islanders 16 18.7 



Asiatic, miscellaneous 11 {18.-) 



African Negro 18 6.- 



South American Indian 5 



Oceanians and Australian 5 {20.-) 



From this evidence Houze concluded that the fossa was materially 

 more frequent in earlier man and diminished in frequency of occur- 

 rence toward the present ; and he was further of the opinion that 

 " the fossa enlarged considerably the transverse diameter of the 

 diaphysis, and that the enlargement was realized at the expense of 

 the antero-posterior diameter " — in other words, that it increased the 



^ " Une cavite creusee dans le sens de I'axe diaphysaire et situee a la partie 

 superieure, posterieure et externe de la diaphyse, . . . ." 



Les bords de la fosse hypotrochanterienne servent, ainsi que la surface 

 rugueuse de son fond, aux fibres terminales du grand fessier." (P. 41.) 



^ " La fosse hypotrochanterienne est un caractere constant de tons les femurs 

 de I'age du Rene en Belgique ; ce caractere relie les Troglodytes de Furfooz aux 

 homme de Grenelle, qui leur sont deja apparentes par le crane, la taille et la 

 perforation olecranienne 



" La fosse hypotrochanterienne tres accusee, mais moins frequente a I'age de 

 la pierre polie, devient positivement rare a I'epoque moderne." (P. 43.) 



' Pearson, K., and Bell, J., A study of the long bones of the English skeleton. 

 Part I, The femur. Drapers' Co. Research Mem., biometric ser., vol. 10, p. 68. 

 London, 1919. 



