THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 



431 



Patella. — The bone had the customary triangular compressed form, the vertical 

 diameter was 39 mm., and the greatest transverse diameter was 37 mm. The vertical 

 ridge, which divided its articular surface into two large areas, was broad and prominent 

 and fitted, between the femoral condyls in full flexion of the joint. The outer articular 

 area was wider than the inner. The inner showed the internal perpendicular facet for 

 adaptation to the area on the intercondylar border of the inner condyl in full flexion of 

 the joint. The upper and lower pairs of transverse facets of Goodsir, # though faintly 

 marked, could be distinguished ; the upper pair was apposed to the femoral condyls in 



Fig. 4. — Tracing of external condylar surface, right 

 tibia, Tasmanian ; a, anterior, p, posterior. 



Fig. 3. — Upper end of right tibia. 



full flexion, the lower pair to the upper border of the trochlea at the completion of 

 extension of the knee. 



Tibia. — The shaft was laterally compressed, the anterior border was strong and 

 somewhat falciform ; the internal subcutaneous surface was convex ; the external was 

 concave ; the posterior was narrow and strongly convex in about the upper half, but 

 flattened lower down. At the middle of the shaft the antero-posterior diameter was 

 33 mm., the transverse diameter was 21 mm., and the index obtained by the formula 



^ was 63 # 6, which is somewhat less than the platyknemic index obtained 



ant. post. diam. 



by Broca in the neolithic tibiae from the French bone caves and that of 66 in the 



* Goodsir's Anatomical Memoirs, edited by W. Turner, "Anatomy of Knee-Joint," vol. ii. p. 225, Edinburgh, 1868 



