HO EELIQUI^E AQUITANIOfl:. 



if it be applicable only to a reputed exceptional individual, loses its probability in proportion as it 

 is necessary to apply it to a greater number of facts, and becomes quite impossible when the character 

 which it pretends to explain becomes frequent, habitual, and nearly general? We may dismiss, then, this 

 hypothesis, the result of doctrinal prepossessions. Nor does it concern us that the flattened form of the 

 Cro-Magnon tibias and of a great number of prehistoric tibias furnishes arguments to the developmentalists, 

 or that their adversaries find arguments to the contrary in the large volume and fine frontal conformation 

 of the Cro-Magnon skulls. We have to study facts, and to observe before we interpret. For my part, I 

 consider the compression of the upper part of the tibia to be an anthropological character connected 

 very probably, like most if not all morphological details, with functional conditions. I see reason to believe, 

 but am far from affirming, that this conformation is in relation with the strength of the muscles of the leg, 

 especially those of the hinder region, and that the triangular form of the upper part of the tibias is 

 particularly observable in the peoples which have the calf well developed. 



f. The Fibula. A nearly perfect fibula, apparently belonging to the skeleton " No. 1 " (page 99), is 

 remarkable for the great depth of the longitudinal gutters for the insertion of the muscles, and for the great 

 prominence of the ridge for the insertion of the interosseous ligament. This conformation is unaccom- 

 panied by any curvature or morbid twist of the bone ; it is in relation, on the one hand, to the great power 

 of the muscles, and, on the other, to tho advanced age of the individual ; for we know that in robust old 

 men the interosseous ridge of the fibula always becomes very prominent. 



g. The Humerus and Ulna. There is nothing special in the three humeri and fragments of humeri : 

 their fossce are not perforated ; their dimensions are in accordance with those of the rest of the skeleton ; 

 and they have quite the ordinary form. 



So also of the bones of the forearm, except that we may notice in the upper extremity of three of the 

 five ulnas the slight depth of the sigmoid cavity, which contrasts with the great size of the olecranon and of 

 the coronoid process, and that immediately below this cavity is an evident antero-posterior curvature, with 

 the concavity directly forward, and below which the shaft of the bone is perfectly straight. This curvature 

 is analogous to that in the same bone of certain Anthropomorphous Apes ; it is altogether different from 

 rachitic curvatures, which take place much lower down, in the middle of the bone, where it offers less 

 resistance, and which moreover occur very rarely and in cases where nearly all the other bones have been 

 distorted by far advanced rickets. 



h. The Vertebrae and Pelvis. The different parts of the vertebral column that have been found at 

 Cro-Magnon offer nothing particular except their considerable size, especially the lumbar vertebra? of 

 "No. 3 "(page 101). 



So also of the different pieces of the pelvis. No entire pelvis was preserved ; but the fragments of a 

 sacrum and iliac bones indicate one of great size. A male sacrum, apparently belonging to " No. 3," presents 

 in its upper part a breadth of 116 millimetres a considerable measurement, and much greater than the 

 average in either sex. In fifty pelves, of all races, which I have measured in the Museum of Natural 

 History, Jardin des Plantes, there are only four in which the breadth exceeds 110 millimetres. These are of 

 a Frenchman from the Pas-de-Calais (114 millims.), a Turk from Algiers (113 millims.), a Turk from Smyrna 

 (123 millims.), and a Frenchwoman (123 millims.). The sacrum from Cro-Magnon is then very broad. It is 

 slightly curved. I could not determine its height, which is considerable ; for its lower extremity is wanting. 



3. Study of the Skulls. 



a. TJie Cranial Region. I have already said that the Skulls are very large. That of the Old Man only 

 is sufficiently perfect to allow of cubic measurement. Gauging it with shot I found its capacity to be 



