REPORT OF BONES PROM HARLYN BAY. 165 



higher stature in a man than in a woman, because the comparison 

 is made between a tall and therefore relatively short-bodied 

 woman and a short and therefore relatively long-bodied man. 

 For this fact I made an allowance, perhaps an insufficient one, in 

 my scheme. Manouvrier and Pearson have, as I think, made 

 too great a one, and Eollet himself, blinking the jDaradoxical 

 fact, allows a greater statiire to the woman on an equal length of 

 bone. Sappey found a quite trivial deficiency. To sum up the 

 merits of the several ways of estimating stature from long bones, 

 I believe that : — 



Pearson's is capable of yielding the most accurate resixlts ; 

 but it is troublesome in application, reqiiiring a good deal of 

 computation : it probably under- estimates the stature of tall men 

 and women, who are almost absent from Rollet's material.* 



Manouvrier's is tolerably easy of application, and fairly 

 accurate ; but its results are probably always a little below the 

 truth. 



Topinard's method is simple, and it yields good results for 

 middle statures, but deficient ones for low and excessive for high 

 statures. Of Eollet's the same may be said, and his figures for 

 tall women are specially exaggerated. 



My own j)lan has the merit of simplicity and easiness: it 

 probably errs by excess in the higher statures; and in single 

 cases the possible error is greater than where several bones are 

 used ; but where a whole series of femora is available there is 

 little chance of going far wrong, the femur being decidedly the 

 bone most nearly correlated with the stature. 



A real criterion is almost unattainable. Criminals furnish 

 nearly the only one possible; and Manouvrier availed himself 

 of them. Eight malefactors, whose living height had been 

 ascertained in the ordinary way, were beheaded and anatomized. 

 Their stature, calculated according to the several plans that have 

 been mentioned, was by every one below the actual fact. 



♦Rollet has only three men in his lists over 173c mm. (5 feet S'l inches), and 

 only two women over 1630 mm. (5 feet 4-2 inches). His subjects were natives of Lyon 

 and the sm-rounding departments, mostly brachykephals of the Alpine race or type, 

 and perhaps in bodily proportions somewhat different from our northern long-heads. 



