632 . Variation of the Human Shoulder-Blade. 
them has a scapular index which is decidedly higher, and they 
‘both exceed the black from Hindoostan in both respects. a 
Sir William Turner states in his “ Challenger” report that, ex- 
cluding the scapulæ of one Hottentot, the mean scapular ind 
the Andaman Islanders. This includes the results of so 
other observers. It would appear, however, that for some reason 
he has omitted also his four Ohauan (Pacific Islands) scapula 
index and 117 for the infra-spinous. He found the variati 
in the scapular index of African blacks, male and female, 
range from 57 to 81, and the infra-spinous index from 30 to I 
Apart from the range of individual variation in the indices, t 
method is open to at least two criticisms: first, that there 
various forms of scapule, which may not be without their ethm 
logical significance, to which these indices give no clue; ane 
secondly, that the length of the scapula—which is of primary im 
portance in determining the more important index, the scapular- 
depends in part on the development of the superior angle of. 
bone. In support of the first criticism I would call attention ti 
two scapula (Figs. 6 and 7) whose indices are almost identical, 
which in shape differ enough to be bones of different species. — 
shall return to these points in the course of the discussion 
the variation of different parts of the bone. 
Length—In the one hundred and thirteen Caucasian$, 
adits, the mean length is 16.22 cm., the extremes being 13. 2i 
20.1. There are six under 14 cm. and ten of 18 or more. | 
mean of the six Californian Indians is 13.62, and of the eight 
from the Kentucky mounds 14.07. The range of variation 
these two series is very small. The shortest bone is 12.4, and t 
longest 15.8, both from Kentucky. These old bones, both i 
size and shape, constitute a well-marked series. 
Professor Mivart, in his well-known paper on the “ Apper 
dicular Skeleton of the Primates,”* takes several parts of ti 
A scapula for comparison. We shall consider the variation th 
some of these present in man alone. 4 
-< The inferior angle (Fig. 1); which Professor Mivart p 
* Philosophical Transactions, London, vol. clvii, s = 2, 1867. | 
2 In Figures 1, 2, and 3 the partial outlines are drawn as though taken 
bone of the right side in every case. This is ice convenience, 
