

108 



RELIQUIAE AQUITANICLE. 



almost to the instep. The old tibias in question, having the ordinary conformation in their lower moiety, 

 and presenting a special type only in their upper portion, radically differ from rickety tibias. 



In the third place, the tibia is never flattened by rickets without the fibula being similarly affected ; 

 indeed the widening and flattening are ordinarily even much more pronounced in the latter than in the 

 former. The fibula, however, accompanying the tibia at Cro-Magnon is not only free from curvature, but 

 has kept its triangular form, being neither flattened nor widened. If its longitudinal crests are more 

 salient than usual, it is because the individual was very robust and old ; but this bone differs completely 

 from rachitic fibulas, and its form is quite incompatible with the notion of the adjacent tibia having been 

 deformed by rickets. 



Lastly (and this argument is still more decisive than the foregoing), the nature of the flattening in these 

 old tibias, the situation and relation of the different parts of these bones, the disposition of the surfaces 

 intended for the insertion of the interosseous'aponeurosis of the muscles, have absolutely nothing in common 

 with the condition observable in rickety tibias. Ilickets sometimes produces in the tibia a fore-and-aft 

 curvature ; the width of the bone is then lessened, its thickness from front to back is increased, its anterior 

 edge (crest of the tibia) becomes sharper, and the bone takes the form of a convex sabre-blade, but without 

 ceasing to be triangular, the situation and anatomical relations of its three faces and its three edges not 

 having been at all modified. The two lateral faces are broader, and the posterior face is narrower ; this is 

 all the difference; and the "popliteal" and "tibial" lines still mark on this posterior face the altogether 

 normal position of the surfaces for the posterior muscles. 



This arrangement is shown in the diagrammatic section No. 3, fig. 47; and we readily see that it has 



Fiff. 47. 



Diagrammatic Sections of Healthy and of Rickety Tibias, at the level of the nutritive foramen. 



No. I. Normal Triangular Tibia. No. 2. Compressed Tibia from Cro-Magnon. No. 3. Rickety Tibia, 



deformed by antero-posterior curvature. No. 4. Rickety Tibia, flattened by lateral curvature. 

 A, Crest or front edge of the Tibia. E, Outer edge, giving insertion to the interosseous aponeurosis. 

 I, Inner edge. N, Situation of the nutritive foramen. EN, Surface for the tibialis posticits. 

 I N, Surface for the popliteus muscle. 



nothing in common with that of the old tibias under notice, since the triangular form of the shaft is 

 preserved, the bone not being flattened in other respects. 



Tibias really flattened by rickets are always laterally curved. The convexity of the curve is always then 

 turned inward, and occurs on the inner edge of the bone, the outer edge being concave. The latter edge being 

 thinner than the former, the shaft is sabre-like, but it does not, like that just mentioned, resemble a convex 

 blade nor a straight blade*, as do those from Cro-Magnon but a blade with a coiwave edge, like that of a 



* Somewhat like that of a Dyak sword, called " Parang." T. R. J. 



