556 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



2nd lumbar : — 



Anterior height, .... 



Posterior ,, 



Yertebral index, ._ . , . 

 3rd lumbar : — 



Anterior height, .... 



Posterior ,, 



Vertebral index, .... 



The composed vertebral index obtained from these three vertebra; 

 is therefore 106'1. 



The relation wliich these figures bear to those of the average 

 European, and especially to the modem Irish spine, is a very close 

 one, as may be seen from the following figures. ( Vide iS'o. 2 of the 

 Royal Irish Academy " Cunningham Memoirs.") 



Average index of the first three lumbar vertebrae : — 



29 mm. 



31 „ 



106-0 



29 mm. 



07 



93-1 



43 Irish males, 



102*2 (maximum 114) 



22 Irish females, .... 98-5 



76 " Europeans," . . . 101-5 



17 Australians, .... 110-6 



11 jS'egros, 110-2 



The sudden fall of the vertebral index of the third lumbar vertebra, 

 as compared with the first and second, is fairly common in Europeans, 

 but has not been observed in Australian or Tasmanian spines. It was 

 noted once in ten Xegro males, and three times in nine Andaman females. 



Femur. — The femur is large and strong ; its shaft is prismatic on 

 cross-section, the linea aspera being so developed as to constitute the 

 condition known as "pilaster femur." A trochanter tertius is pre- 

 sent, and the insertion of the glutens maximus is marked by a deep, 

 roughened impression. The neck of the bone is set very obliquely to 

 the shaft. The length of the bone is 477 mm. 



Conch'.sions. — The bones of this subject are those of a powerfully 

 built young man, of between twenty and thirty years of age, and of 

 a stature, as calculated from the length of the femur and of the bones 

 of the forearms, of about 1778 ram., or 5 feet 10 inches. 



The skeletons have many characters in common ; the crania are 

 in both cases brachy cephalic and of the same type, and both femora 

 belong to the class of pilaster femur. 



The points telling most in favour of the antiquity of the speci- 

 mens, besides the nature of the sepulture and surroundings in which 

 they were found and the friability of the bones, are the two femora, 



