30 



SMITHSONIAN M ISfl'-LLANKOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



grades reach in the older adolescents nearly 40 percent, which is 

 strikingly similar to what has been shown by the femora of preceding 

 racial groups. 



The fossa-groove, one example of which occurs in this group m 

 one of the older subjects among the younger children, progresses also 

 to reach its maximum frequency in the older adolescents. This form 

 also, therefore, appears more frequently as age advances. 



THE ESKIMO 



The last racial group from which there is a fair representation ot 

 juvenile femora, is that of the Alaskan Eskimo. The material con- 

 sists of 224 specimens, probably all fullblood. They furnish the 

 following data : 



Hypotrochanteric Fossa in Eskimo, Children and Adolescents 



Once more, though somewhat less regularly (owing probably to in- 

 sufficient numbers), there is seen the gradual increase with age in 

 frequency as well as in the size of the fossa. On the whole, however, 

 this group shows somewhat less tendency toward the formation of the 

 hollow, and also of the fossa-groove, than did the preceding ones. 



It will now be possible to make some brief and necessarily rough 

 comparisons of the conditions shown by the juvenile bones of the 

 several racial groups ; comparisons that must suffer more or less not 

 only from the unequal and in instances insufficient numbers, but also 

 from the unequal age distribution within the different series. For the 

 purpose of these comparisons it will be of advantage to combine the 

 seven grades of the fossa into four larger subdivisions: 



