6 FISCHEE OS THE PELVIS OF THE MAMMALIA ; 



rom the horizontal to the erect position, with the same ease as they retain it 

 when erect) ; the hands seem mainly given to him, as to the simise, for 

 assisting in raising the trunk. 



The proportion of the numbers obtained by multiplying the length of the 

 dorsal portion of the ilium into the breadth of its middle portion, was to the 

 square of the whole length of the whole pelvis : In the 

 Mole, as 72 to 10,000 Squirrel, as 383 to 10,000 



Bat, ... 124 



Cercopithecus, ... 149 



Hedgehog, ... 179 



Mouse, ... 183 



Weasel, ... 204 



Eat, ... 227 



Eabbit, ... 422 ... 



Martin, ... 467 ... 



Cat, ... 538 ... 



Short-haired dog ... 646 ... 



Fox, ... 715 ... 



Hare, ... 737 ... 



Stoat, ... 309 ..: 



I next measured several human pelves by a straight line, from the anterior 

 superior spine of the crest of the ilium to the angle which this crest makes 

 inwardly in that spot, where, by means of a ligament, it is joined to the trans- 

 verse process of the last lumbar vertebra ; and then leading the string or cord 

 from this angle to the posterior superior tubercle in which the dorsal portion 

 of the crest terminates ; by these measurements I found, for the most part, 

 that the dorsal portion was absolutely larger in those pelves in which the ab- 

 dominal part was smallest ; and, vice versa, the promontory (or rather the 

 last lumbar vertebra) projected more into the cavity of the pelvis the longer 

 the dorsal portion of the crest of the ilium really was. In a female pelvis, for 

 example, the abdominal portion was sixty-seven lines in length, in another only 

 fifty and a third ; in the former, the dorsal portion was only twenty-six lines 

 and two-thirds in length ; in the latter, it was thirty-two and a half. The 

 length of the whole crest was thus in both nearly the same ; for twenty-six and 

 two-thirds added to sixty-one make eighty-seven and two-thirds ; and fifty- 

 two and one-third added to thirty- two and a half give nearly eighty-five. The 

 fossa, or depression, moreover, between the dorsal portion of the crest of the 

 ilium, and the summits of the spinous processes of the lumbar vertebrae, was 

 less marked in that pelvis in which the dorsal portion was least, and in which 

 the promontory projected less acutely into the cavity of the pelvis ; but it was 

 deeper or better marked in that pelvis in which the promontory projected 

 more acutely into the cavity of the pelvis, and in which the dorsal portion 

 was larger. In the former pelvis this fossa, or depression, had a depth of 

 nine and one-third lines ; in the latter it equalled eleven and a quarter. 



These observations seem to me to throw new light on an observation of the 

 distinguished Osiander,* who observed that "in women who, from their earliest 

 years were accustomed to carry burdens on their backs, the angle which the 

 conjugate diameter of the pelvis makes with the horizon becomes much 

 nearer the perpendicular, than in those accustomed to carry burdens in any 

 other way ; and that this greater inclination of the conjugate diameter is a 

 frequent cause of difficult parturition. For not only does this greater obli- 



* Denkwurdig keiten fur die Heilkunde und Geburtshulfe, Zweyter Band ; Getting., 

 1795; p. 340. 



