58 Ti-ansactions.— Zoology 



Twenty lower limbs allowed of this index being calculated. 

 The mean is 82-6, and the indices vary from 85-7 to 79-2. 

 This average is left practically unchanged by the inclusion 

 of the indices 86 and 77-7 of the two Maoris measured by Sir 

 William Turner ; and the index 82-2, the mean of five Poly- 

 nesians measured by M. Topinard, is but very slightly lower. 



Owing to the small number of female skeletons examined 

 by me, I can say nothing definite on the question of the 

 influence of sex on this proportion. The males have an 

 average of 83-2 and the females of 81-4, but these figures are 

 of little value. 



Comparing the Maoris with other races, and using Pro- 

 fessor Turner's convenient classification,-'' we find that though 

 they belong, along with Europeans, Mongolians, and others, 

 to the brachyknemic group, yet they are on the verge of the 

 dolichoknemic division, which includes Australians, Negroes, 

 Andaman Islanders, &c. Using the word " leg " in its limited 

 anatomical sense, the Maori lower limb is therefore on the 

 border-line between short- and long-leggedness. 



Intermcmhral Index. 



This is calculated according to the formula — 



Humeral length + radial length x 100 

 Femoral length + tibial length 



and gives the proportion between the lengths of the upper and 

 lower limbs. The maximum length of the femur, humerus, 

 and radius are used, but the spines are not included in the 

 tibial measurement. 



Eighteen indices were calculated, and these give an average 

 of 70-2. The proportionally longest upper limb is shown by 

 the index 73; the shortest, by 66-7. Professor Turner's two 

 Maoris give an average index slightly lower than mine — 69-3 ; 

 but the general average is only lowered J^ by their inclusion 

 in the series. 



The proportion between the lengths of the two extremi- 

 ties in different races has been studied by several anatomists, 

 and a comparison of their measurements with mine shows 

 that, while the Maori upper limb is very slightly longer in 

 proportion to the lower than in the European, it is more 

 distinctly so than in the Negro or the Andaman Islander. 

 M. Broca, as the result of the measurements of fourteen skele- 

 tons, gives the index for the European as 69-73. Sir George 

 Humphry! has calculated this index in twenty-five Negroes, 



* Brachyknemic, index under 83 ; Dolichoknemic, index 83 or 

 upwards. 



t " The Human Skeleton." 



