THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 



423 



Table IV. 



Tasmanian Spine. 





Ant. V.D. 



Post. V.D. 



Index. 



9th dorsal vertebra, 



19 mm. 



18 mm. 



94-9^ 



10th 



11th „ ... 



21 „ 

 21 „ 



20 „ 



21 „ 



1 00 [ Sp ec ' a l Index. 



12th „ ... 



22 



23 „ 



104-5J 



83 mm. 



82 mm. 



98 - 6 General Index. 



1st lumbar vertebra, 



24 mm. 



25 mm. 



104-n 



2nd „ ... 



23 „ 



25 „ 



108-7 



3rd „ ... 



23 „ 



25 „ 



108 "7 [-Special Lumbar Index. 



4th „ ... 



24 „ 



25 „ 



104-1 



5th „ ... 



25 „ 



21 



84 J 



119 mm. 



121 mm. 



101-6 General Lumbar Index. 



It will be seen that in the 9th and 10th dorsals the anterior diameter exceeded the 

 posterior, and the special index was less than 100 ; in the 11th they were equal ; in the 

 12th the posterior exceeded the anterior, and the index was above 100. The general 

 index 98 '6 expressed that in the four lowest dorsals collectively the anterior vertical 

 diameter was somewhat more than the posterior. In each of the upper four lumbar 

 vertebrae, as in the last dorsal, the posterior vertical diameter was longer than the 

 anterior, and the special index in each was more than 100 ; but in the 5th the anterior 

 diameter, as is customary, was materially longer than the posterior, and the special 

 index was only 84. The general lumbar index was 101 '6, due to the collective posterior 

 vertical diameters being somewhat longer than the anterior. 



Professor Cunningham was the first anatomist to measure the vertical diameters 

 of the lumbar bodies in the Tasmanian spine and to compute the indices. He 

 examined three skeletons, two males and a female: Nos 1096^ and 1097£ in the 

 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and No. 176lt£ in the Barnard 

 Davis collection in the same museum.* He did not record the measurements of the 

 individual vertebras, but he stated the indices. In the upper four in both sexes the 

 special index was more than 100 : in the female the index was 107*8 ; the mean in the 

 two males was 112 "8. In the 5th lumbar the special index in both sexes was less than 

 100, and the mean of the three specimens was 92*4. The general lumbar index in the 

 three skeletons computed by Cunningham was 107 "2. In his specimens, as in mine, 



* H. Klaatsch subsequently recorded measurements of the lumbar vertebras in these skeletons, as well as that 

 m the Museum, South Kensington (Zeitsch. fur Ethnologie, Heft 6, Tafel vii., 1903). His method was to take the 

 height in the median plane of the body of the vertebra and to estimate the mean of the transverse breadth and to 



compute a breadth-height index from the formula 



HxlOO 

 B ' 



The mean index of the three males was 52-4, that of the 



females 59 - 6. 

 myself. 



Klaatsch's measures differed both in method and purpose from those made by Cunningham and 



