PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 569 



In the discussion regarding the relation of this condition to the 

 fmiction of the tibiaUs posticus muscle, no one appears to have noticed 

 the peculiar fashion in which the blackfellow uses his toes, bending the 

 knee, and passing them behind the body to the opposite hand — an act 

 specially involving the use of this muscle. 



Another point has been overlooked, viz., the relation of the platyc- 

 nemic condition to the subject of retroversion of the head of the tibia. 

 In some cases I have examined of well-marked retroversion, the con- 

 dition of platycnemia has been unusually well-defined, and the ad- 

 ditional material is seen to be arranged like a pilaster supporting the 

 head of the tibia and the superimposed weight, much more directly 

 than would be possible were there no platycnemic condition. From 

 this point of view " platycnemia " would be synonymous with " pi- 

 lastered tibia."* 



An observation made by Topinard gives special interest to this 

 condition. He says that a condition of the femur and the fibula (both 

 of which I have found in the aboriginal) and the condition of platyc- 

 nemia are peculiarities that belonged to one and the same race in Western 

 Europe, and that it is remarkable that they are rarely met with in sub- 

 jects showing perforation of the olecranon cavity. " The two races 

 that have bequeathed to us the two varieties are therefore distinct." It 

 is to be noted that Manouvrier, on the contrary, claims that all the 

 conditions referred to are found associated in the same skeletons. 



As regards retroversion of the head of the tibia, this is a condition 

 that I have found very strongly marked in several skeletons. Theories 

 to explain it involve a discussion of the state of the knee-joint in walking, 

 and, as I have shown in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, vol. 

 XXV., this subject demands a far greater amount of investigation than 

 it has yet received, the ordinary teaching on the matter being incon- 

 sistent with the facts. 



There are other points of interest connected with the tibia, for 

 example, the facet on the anterior surface of the lower extremity, which 

 I have found to be often present. 



* I find that Dr. Stirling, in the Report of the ]Vork of the Horn Scientific Ex- 

 pedition, vol. 2, p. 187, gives measurements of a left tibia from Alice Springs and 

 of two from the South-East, the indices being 73.7, 69.4, and 57.9 respectively. 

 This gives an average of 67. Dr. Stirhng discusses the condition in the body of 

 the work, pp. 19 et seq., and p. 153, where he records observations of his own and 

 others by Professor Watson. I find no other references than these to platycnemia 

 in the Austrahan aboriginal. AustraUan, and especially South Australian, an- 

 thropological work and specimens are not iinknown in Cambridge. It seems 

 surprising, therefore, that the results of the Horn Expedition, published in 1898, 

 should not fiad a place or a reference in University works pubHshed at the Cam- 

 bridge University Press in 1904, and designed to be used as University text-books 

 on the subject. What is true of English commimications would appear to be even 

 more apphcable to German researches. Dr. Hermann Klaatsch informs me that 

 many points dealt with in this present paper have been the subject of research by 

 him and others, and that the German literature on the subject is very extensive 

 indeed. His own publications, which he names, are " Die Entstehung und 

 Entwictelung des Menschengeschiecht^;, 1902 " ; " Ueber die Variutionen des 

 Menschenskelets. 1902." This adds to the gravamen of my complaint, and 

 furnishes additional evidence of the necessity of my present communication. 



