ANCIENT REMAINS OF MAN HEDLICKA. 527 



side. There is no isolated suprapatellar fossa as in the Neanderthal 

 femur, but the ordinary lower suprapatellar depression is very pro- 

 nounced. The curvatures of the femur, the characteristics of its 

 condyles, and the marked backward inclination of the internal 

 condyle of the tibia, differ all more or less from similar features in 

 modern man and indicate habits of posture that have since been 

 abandoned. The right femur (left broken) measures in bicondylar 

 length 42.4 cm., in maximum length, 42.6; while the relatively short 

 left tibia measures, less the spine, 33.3 cm. These dimensions cor- 

 respond according to Manouvrier's tables to the stature of 161.1 cm. 

 for the femur and 157 cm. for the tibia, or about 159 cm. (a little 

 over 5 feet 3 inches) for the two bones together. The right femur 

 of the Neanderthal skeleton, measured in the same manner^ gave the 

 writer 43.7, the left 43.9 cm., which shows that the Spy man was in all 

 probability somewhat shorter. Prof. Boule, in his Annales de Pale- 

 ontologie, (vol. 7, 1912, p. 117), estimates the stature of the Spy 

 man as identical (or 1 millimeter higher) with that of the Neander- 

 thal man, but this is evidently based on erroneous data concerning 

 the length of the bones. However, even the most precise estimates 

 in this line can only be gross though useful approximations, for we 

 know but little of the length of the trunk in these skeletons, and the 

 posture of the body in the early representatives of humanity was 

 probably less erect than it is in man to-day. 



The remaining bones of the Spy skeletons show various anatomical 

 peculiarities and secondary primitive features, but these call for a 

 technical description and comparisons. A rather unexpected condi- 

 tion, found since in other skeletons of Homo neanderthalensis^ is the 

 relative shortness of the forearms, as well as the legs. The radius 

 shows a marked nonpathological curvature ; and there are a number 

 of interesting characteristics on the astragalus, which has recently 

 been studied with much detail by the son of Julien Fraipont.^ 



The region that has given us the Spy skeletons has yielded no addi- 

 tional remains of similar nature, but the terrain can scarcely be re- 

 garded as exhausted by exploration. 



1 The following works may be consulted in this connection : 



Julien Fraipont et M. Lohest, Recherches sur les ossements humains decouverts dans 

 les depots quaternaires d'une grotte a Spy et determination de leur age geologique. 

 Archives de biologie, tome 6, Gand. 1887 ; Fraipont, J. — Le tibia dans la race de 

 Neanderthal. Revue d'anthropologie, Paris, 3d series, vol. 3, 1888, p. 145 et seq. 

 Klaatsch, U. — Erg. d. Anat. u. Entwickelungsgesch, Bd. 9, 1899 — Derselbe, Die wichtigsten 

 Variationen am Skelett der freien unteren Extremitiit des Menschen und ihre Bedeutung 

 fiir das Abstammungsproblem. ibid., Bd. 10, 1900 ; Fraipont, Charles — L'astragale de 

 I'Homme Mousterien de Spy ; ses affinites. Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie de 

 Bruxelles, vol. 31, 1912, pp. 1-30, 3 pis. ; do.— Sur I'Importance des caract&res de 

 l'astragale ehez I'Homme fossile. Thfese, Univers. de Li6ge, 8°, Bruxelles, 1913, pp. 

 1-66, 6 pis. 



