78 



LABORATORY MANUAL OF ANTHROPOMETRY 



bodies are wedge-shaped, with the lesser thickness (the edge) pointing 

 backwards (dorsally) ; the third is about .square, i.e., the anterior and 

 posterior surfaces are nearly parallel, and in the negro absolutely so; 

 while in the fourth and fifth the wedge is turned around, with the edge 

 pointing forwards (ventrally). Cunningham,* who investigated a 

 much larger number of European skeletons than did Turner (76) , found 

 the index for the first lumbar vertebra to be 106.1, and for the fifth 81.6, 

 with the general index, 95.8, practically the same as the latter author. 

 For the negro he obtained a general index of 105.4, and for the Andama- 

 nese 104.8, both considerably larger than the results of Turner. 



Studies of the vertebral column, calculated to bring out the wedge- 

 shaped character of the vertebral bodies, and incidentally the curves, 

 have been undertaken by Hasebe,f who has carried out the bulk of his 

 work upon Japanese material, but has compared his results with the 

 studies of others upon other races. Among his tables, which are both 

 numerous and extensive, he includes such measures as the ventral and 

 dorsal vertical measures of the vertebral bodies, the transverse and 

 sagittal diameters of the same, with special studies of certain important 

 vertebrae, as the atlas, the epistropheus, and the sacrum. 



The volumetric measures of the vertebral column, both as a whole, 

 and in its separate groups, compared in various ways, have been employed 

 by Wetzel, J in a study of the vertebral column of the native Australians. 

 These volumes are obtained by means of water replacement. He finds 

 the average volume, both of entire vertebral columns, and of separate 

 vertebrae, in 8 Australians, 6 Europeans, and2 negroes, besides the same 

 data for the vertebral column of an adult orang-utan, for comparison. 

 The average volume of the entire column, including the sacrum, together 

 with the maximum and minimum among the individual studies was 

 found as follows : 



VOLUME OF THE ENTIRE VERTEBRAL COLTJMN, INCLUDING THE SACRUM 



(in cubic centimeters) 



The average volume of single vertebrae is taken by measuring all of 

 one group together and dividing by the number of the group; thus, the 



* The Lumbar Curve in Man and the Apes; Dublin, 1886. 



t Die Wirbelsaule der Japaner. Zeitschr. fur Morphol. und Anthropol. Bd. 

 XV, 1912, pp. 259-380. 



t Die Wirbelsaule der Australier. Zeitschr. fur Morphol. und Anthropol., Bd. 

 XII, 1909, pp. 313-340. 



