NOTES ON THE SKELETON OF AN ABORIGINAL 

 AUSTRALIAN. 



BY 



A. MACALISTER, M.D., 

 Professor of Comparative Anatomy, University of Dublin. 



[Read November 19th, 1877.] 



The Museum of the Dublin University has recently received a 

 fine skeleton of an aboriginal Australian, which is a valuable 

 addition to its ethnological department. I am indebted to Dr. 

 R Tuthill Massy, of Brighton, for this interesting donation, and 

 have made a careful series of measurements and observations on 

 it, the results of which I have embodied in this paper. 



The stature was small, 5' 1J", which is about the average for 

 Australian natives ; though I am informed by Dr. Johnston, of 

 this city, who has had extensive experiences of these races, that 

 in some tribes, much taller individuals are common ; and that on 

 one occasion he met with an encampment of natives on the Murray 

 river, many of whom were six feet high. Such are, however, 

 exceptional, for the general consensus of opinion is that " very 

 few could be said to be tall and still fewer to be well made." 

 (Collins' Account, p. 356.) 



The skeleton is that of a male, known and employed as a mes- 

 senger, and who had been known to travel seventy miles in a 

 day. The proportions are as follows compared with the standard 

 in Professor Humphry's Work : — 





Height. 



Ta 



Spine. 



BLE I. 



Humerus. 



Radius. 



Femur. 



Tibia. 



Australian, . 



1-00 



— 



•203 



•151 



•286 



•226 



Irishmen, . 



1-00 



•340 



•194 



•154 



•270 



•225 



Negroes, 



1-00 



•311 



•195 



•151 



•274 



•232 



Bushmen, . 



1-00 



•3H 



•20 



•153 



•277 



•2389 



Bushwoman, l'OO -333 -182 -131 -264 -2108 



To represent more accurately the relationships of the inter- 

 membral lengths, I append the following three tables : — 



