EEPORT OX BOXES FBOJI HAELYX BAY. 163 



utilization ; but there are no apparent defects in Manouvrier's 

 plan excej)t two, which have been pointed out by Professor 

 Pearson, the latest worker in the field, and which affect such 

 bones as we have to do with at Harlyn. They are these : — 

 Eollet's bones were fresh, moist, and full of animal matter ; but 

 ours are ancient and dry, and have lost much of their organic 

 substance, and are probably from 1 to 3 millimeters short of 

 their original length. Manouvrier does not seem to have made 

 any jirovision for this reduction; and I apprehend that his 

 computed statures must on an average be a little too low on that 

 account. Manouvrier appears, moreover, to have used the 

 oblique measurement of the femur, that which is gotten by 

 adjusting both its condyles to a plane, and its head to a parallel 

 one, instead of the maximum length, which Topinard favours. 

 This j)lan would give a smaller stature, in most cases, than the 

 other, by perhaps 7 millimeters or over a C[uarter-inch. 



Next followed Professor Carl Pearson, who also based his 

 method on Pellet's facts. It was unfortunate that the greater 

 part of these facts related to old or at best elderly subjects. Of 

 his 50 men, no less than 37 Avere aged 50 or upwards, 25 of these 

 60 or upwards, and 18 past 70 years. Of his 50 women also, 

 exactly a half had passed their sixtieth year. It so happened 

 that an undue proportion of the older people were of tall stature, 

 and both PoUet and Pearson thought the inclusion of these old 

 people would not notably vitiate their averages, and accordingly 

 included therein the entire hundi-ed. Manouvrier and Eahon 

 thought differently, and made use of the younger 50 only ; and 

 that they did so rightly may, I think, be easily shewn. 



Thus, although some femora belonging -to aged persons 

 seem to lose a little of their length through the bending of the 

 neck from continued pressure, so that the angle of incurvation 

 at the trochanters appears less obtuse, I find that Pellet's oldest 

 10 men, averaging 1631 mm. (corpse-length), had an average 

 femur-length of 445 "8 mm., while in 13 men of 51 and under, 

 averaging about the same stature (1636 mm.), the femur- 

 length was only 437 mm, or about 9 mm. less. In ten of iiis 

 oldest women, with an average stature of 1526, the femur 

 measured 419'6, while in ten women of 40 j^ears or less, with a 

 stature of 1529, the femur-length was only 408-9, less than in the 



