4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. <)2 



Costa's observations on the frequency of the fossa were as follows : 



With 

 Femora hypotrochanteric 

 examined fossa Percent 



Europeans 102 30 2^.4 



Asiatics 6 4 (>^-7 



Africans 12 6 50.0 



Australians 2 I . . • • 



Americans (probably Indians) ... . 14 n 7B.6 



Fuegians Z7 2>7 100.- 



A year after (1891) Bertaux,'" in his thesis on the humerus and 

 the femur, gives also attention to the hypotrochanteric fossa. By 

 this name, he says (p. 159), is designated "an elliptic hollow that 

 occasionally appears on the human femur and is located on the superior 

 posterior and external part of the diaphysis. This fossa gives inser- 

 tion to the gluteus maximus The frequency of this skeletal 



feature is very variable "." He finds it once only in 47 " determined " 

 French femora; in 38 percent of the Guanches ; in the same propor- 

 tion in the Orrouy femora; in 3 out of 34 (8.8 percent) femora 

 of divers Negroes; twice in four Calif ornians ; and in 23 percent 

 of the anthropoids examined. Bertaux is the first to observe the 

 fossa in the anthropoid apes. He suggests that it may present racial 

 differences, but his data on the anthropoid as well as on the human 

 material, owing to lack of clearness as to just what the proportions 

 apply to (femora or skeletons), are unsatisfactory. 



The same year (1891) Hyades and Deniker"^ report having found 

 the fossa, alone or in association with a third trochanter, in 13 out 

 of 29 Fuegian femora (44.8 percent). In general, the fossa was less 

 marked than the tuberosity. They illustrate both the fossa and the 

 third trochanter on the femur of a Fuegian girl of eight. They do not 

 discuss the meaning of the fossa. 



Manouvrier" and Ludewig, in their studies on the femur, both 

 touched more or less on the subtrochanteric fossa but added no 



'" Bertaux, A., L'humefus et le femur consideres dans les especes. dans les 

 races humaines, selon le sexe et selon I'age, Paris, Lille, 1891. 



" " Sous le nom de fosse hypotrochanterienne, on designe une fossette elliptique 

 qui se presente exceptionellement sur le femur de I'homme et siege a la partie 

 superieure, posterieure et externe de la diaphyse. Cette fosse donne insertion au 

 muscle grand fessier 



"La frequence de ce caractere squelettique est tres variable." (P. 159.) 



'^Hyades, P., and Deniker, J., Mission scientifique du Cap Horn, 1882-1883, 

 vol. 7. Anthropologic, Ethnographic, Paris, 1891. 



'" Alanouvrier, L., La platymerie. loth Sess. Cong. Intern. Anthrop. and 

 Archeol. prehist., [1889] pp. 363-81, 1891 ; Etude sur les variations morpho- 



