OSTEOMETRY; THE MEASUREMENT OF THE BONES 129 



IV. CURVATURE OF SHAFT 



This character of the femur may be noticed incidentally by placing 

 a series of femora on the table, dorsal side down, and lying in their 

 natural position, when it will be noticed that the highest point of the 

 convex curve of the ventral (anterior) surface differs considerably, i.e., 

 that some femora lie flatter than others. This is a definite characteristic 

 of the Neandertals, in whom the femora curve up strikingly higher than 

 do those of the present living species. 



No special apparatus has been devised to measure this with accuracy 

 but by simply measuring the highest point of this curve by a ruler held 

 vertically upon the table, and making an index with this as numerator 

 and the physiological length as denominator. In this way the amount 

 of curvature of individual bones may be easily compared. 



Patella* 



In spite of its small size, the patella is an important bone anthro- 

 pometrically, as it is one of the parts, like the distal end of the femur, 

 the proximal end of the tibia, and the bones of the ankle, which are 

 concerned in the various methods of sitting and squatting, and are thus 

 modified by the cultural environment of various races. These effects 

 are largely seen on the dorsal (inner) surface, expressed in the articular 

 surfaces; there are also differences in the relative size and shape of the 

 entire bone. Yet, although these racial and individual differences have 

 been recognized, very little actual work has as yet been done upon this 

 bone, and the measurements proposed (e. g. Martin; Lehrbuch, pp. 

 930-31) are still mainly in the form of suggestion for future investigation.! 



The articular surface of a patella is divisible into a number of facets, 

 set at slightly different angles, reflecting the various habitual positions 

 of the knee in different races and in different individuals. The most 

 constant are (1) an inner and (2) an outer, of which the inner is much 

 narrower, thus easily orientating the bone and distiguishing the left 

 from the right. In some races there seem to be three such the third 

 being placed between the first two. The outer one, also, is sometimes 

 divided across into a larger upper, and a much smaller lower facet, as is 

 seen in the Punjabi [Lamont, 1900]. The proportions of these facets 

 may be readily expressed by the indices of the measurements of the 

 maximum length and breadth of these separate facets. 



Aside from the study of the facets there are the measurements of the 

 bone as a whole. Martin (1914) gives the following measurements.- 



1 Maximum height', taken along the main axis of the extended leg, 

 from base to apex. SC. 



* See a paper by J. C. LAMONT in Jour. Anat. and Physiol., Vol. 44, 1910. This is 

 upon the patella of the Punjabi and consists of two pages only, but is important, 

 t (See note at end of section on Tibia.). 

 9 



