106 EELIQUIJE AQUITANICLE. 



line passes along the opposite face. The above-mentioned line divides the internal face into two equal 

 par ts ( _the one (anterior) representing the inner face of the triangular tibias; the other (posterior) 

 extending as far as the nutritive foramen, and consequently representing the inner moiety of the posterior 

 face, the outer moiety of which, as seen above, is turned on to the outer face of the bone. In other words, 

 whilst the surface of insertion of the tibialis posticus is carried on to the outer face, the surfaces for the 

 popliteus and the long flexor of the toes are added to the inner face. An oblique line, marked by rugosities, 

 along which the soleus is inserted, and corresponding to the linep>" in fig. 1, indicates the separation of 

 the surface for the popliteus from that for the flexor longus. 



The posterior edge (the only portion of the posterior face which is really directed backwards) occurs on 

 only the upper part of the shaft. High up above the level of the nutritive foramen it is thick and rounded ; 

 lower down it ends by sinking gradually into a prominent line, or true bony orest, which becomes more and 

 more pronounced as it passes downwards until, towards the middle of the bone, gradually dying out, it 

 rejoins the external edge of the now triangular shaft. This crest is nothing but the " tibial line " (fig. 44, jj'). 

 Hence the posterior edge of the compressed portion is composed, above the nutritive foramen, of the upper 

 part of the " popliteal line " (figs. 44 and 46, pp"), and of the " tibial line " below that level. 



The foregoing description applies especially to the tibias from Cro-Magnon ; but it is applicable also to 

 all the other platycnemic tibias both to that of the fossil Man found by M. Bertrand (see above, page 103), 

 and those from the dolmens. It will serve also, with some slight differences of secondary importance, for 

 the tibias of the anthropomorphic Apes. These differences concern the relative degree of prominence of 

 the " popliteal " and " tibial " lines ; and there would be nothing extraordinary in supposing them to have 

 reference to the smaller development of muscles in the calf of the Ape ; but the form of the tibia, and the 

 arrangement of the lines and of the muscular surfaces, differ in nothing from the type above-described and 

 so well characterized in the tibias from Cro-Magnon. I have already mentioned that certain Negro tibias 

 have an analogous conformation ; and I here add that in several other Negro tibias I have found a 

 conformation intermediate to that of the triangular and of the compressed tibias. The morphological 

 importance of this character cannot be misunderstood. 



e. Discussion of the Supposed Raehitic State of the Bones. I have given the foregoing minute 

 description because M. Pruner-Bey has sustained, in the discussions of the Anthropological Society of Paris, 

 the opinion that the compressed tibias from Cro-Magnon had been affected by Rickets. (See also above, 

 page 84.) This hypothesis cannot be accepted by those who have studied the influence of Rickets on the 

 general growth of the body and on the conformation of each bone in particular. I can here appeal to the 

 opinion of one who for more than thirty years has studied the deformities of the human body, and whose 

 works on Rickets have authority. M. Jules Gue"rin, who has examined the bones in question, when before 

 the Anthropological Society, has declared that these bones exhibit no trace of disease, no rachitic 

 malformation. I know, however, that in matters of science, authority should yield to demonstration ; and 

 we must therefore enter upon a detailed examination of facts. 



The most characteristic feature of Rickets is the arrested development of the skeleton. M. Jules Guerin 

 has long since shown that Rickets, in stopping the growth of the bones, tends to maintain, even after the 

 recovery of the subjects, and even after their full growth, the morphologic type of the skeleton of the infant. 

 Thus adults who have been rachitic in infancy are remarkable for the relative length of their arms, the 

 hands reaching sometimes almost to the knee. For my part, I proved (sixteen years ago) that the so-called 

 rachitic layers are nothing but the normal bone-forming tissues arrested in their evolution, and I have thus 

 given a histological explanation of the fact discovered by M. J. Guerin. 



The skeletons of rickety persons, then, are arrested in development ; their stature never reaches what it 



