298 HENRY H. DONALDSON 



Hatai ('07) on the linear measurements of the cranium in the 

 matufe albino rat. 



It may be noted that the records on the relative lengths of the 

 limb bones of the rat which appear in tables 53 and 54 of ' The 

 Rat' (Donaldson, '15) are based on some of the same data that 

 have been used in this present paper, but the corresponding 

 tables here given are more complete and are to be preferred to 

 those published earlier. 



Although the studies of Falck ('54) on the skeleton of the 

 dog, of Weiske ('89) on the bones of birds, of Wildt (72) and 

 Graffenberger ('91) on the bones of rabbits, of Tribot ('06) on 

 the skeleton of the guinea-pig, and of Sedlmair ('99) on that of 

 the cat, all contain data which might be brought into relation 

 with our own, yet the comparisons which could be made are so 

 few, and are also subject to so many corrections for the effects 

 of species, age, sex, diet, technique, etc., that it does not seem 

 wise to attempt them. 



It may be said, however, in a general way that there does not 

 appear in our results anything contradictory to those previously 

 reported. In the paper by Jackson and Lowrey ('12, pp. 465 

 and 466) the data on the relative weights of the skeleton in a 

 series of vertebrates, man included, are given, and a number of 

 values derived from the extensive tables of Welcker and Brandt 

 ('03) are also given in this list, but no critical analysis of the data 

 is there attempted. Such an analysis is, however, necessary 

 before one can interpret the relations between the values as 

 reported. 



COMPARISON WITH MAN 



The relative fresh (or moist) weight of the human skeleton is 

 reported by several authors, although the determinations are 

 usually deficient in the designation of race, of the relation of the. 

 body weight to the cause of death, as well as of the method of 

 preparation. Schwann ('43), Bischoff ('63), Dursy ('63), v. 

 Liebig (74), Volkmann (74), and Theile ('84) have furnished 

 data, and the general result is that the weight of the moist 

 skeleton is on the average about 16 per cent of the total body 

 weight. 



