OSTEOMETRY; THE MEASUREMENT OF THE BONES 109 



istics of these sorts which seem to be racial may be in reality industrial 

 or habitudinal, and have become the definite characteristics of a given 

 race because of definite peculiarities in their racial culture. To illustrate 

 this we have the claim of the two Adachis that the wrists and hands of the 

 Japanese race are much more supple, and have a greater mobility that 

 these parts in Europeans, and that this may be due to the harder forms 

 of toil indulged in by the latter; not that they work harder, but that they 

 are concerned with larger and heavier objects, such as larger tools, larger 

 structures involving larger parts, and so on. 



In the case of the tarsus the importance of the various foot motions, 

 especially those of the ankle, involved, not only in walking and climbing, 

 but in sitting and squatting, have already called especial attention to 

 such bones as the calcaneus and the talus, and these parts have received 

 much special attention anthropometrically, and from these one may get 

 excellent models and many suggestions concerning the prosecution of 

 further study of the carpus (cf. below). As much of value has been sug- 

 gested in other regions by the comparison with the same parts in the 

 large apes, it may be suggested that here would be an unusual opportunity 

 for suggestive comparison by observation of the use of the hands and 

 wrists in these animals, and a constant comparison with the use in man. 



V. THE PELVIC SKELETON, INCLUDING HIP-GIRDLE AND 



SACRUM 



Pelvic Girdle 



Next to the skull the pelvic girdle, including the sacrum and the 

 ossa coxae (innominata) is of the most general interest, and the two 

 have many attributes in common. Like the skull, the pelvic girdle is 

 complex, formed by several separate elements, showing in the adult 

 several degrees of fusion, but never with more than a limited amount of 

 independent motion; both skull and pelvic girdle, too, are in many places 

 quite superficial, and allow numerous measurements to be made with 

 equal facility upon the bones of the living, with either no difference in 

 the result, (e.g., spinal breadth) or with only the slight difference caused 

 by the thickness of the integument (e.g., cristal breadth). 



In another way the pelvic girdle is, in its treatment, like the skull, 

 and that is in its need for orientation, and in its presentation of three 

 dimensions, length [depth], breadth, and height. As in the skull there 

 is a definite plane of orientation, the aim of which is to place the part in 

 a natural position corresponding to that in the living. In the pelvic 

 girdle, unlike the skull, the plane of orientation is vertical rather than 

 horizontal, and the orientation is effected by placing the girdle, with 

 its three parts (two ossa coxae and sacrum) fastened together, in such a 

 position that the two anterior ventral iliac spines, and the ventral 



