﻿202 Proceedings of the Roy el Physical Society. 



muscles. Less marked in the studious man than in the 

 labourer, these asperities are still less so in the woman, 

 especially in women residing in towns. This law is so 

 exact, that we can tell by the degree of prominence of the 

 crests and processes what muscles the individual was most 

 in the habit of using, and hence judge as to his profession or 

 calling. As a sequence of these prominences, the depres- 

 sions, grooves, and marks are more distinct in the man."" 

 Further on he says : " A woman who had worked hard all 

 her life would have the bony prominences and the processes 

 for the articulations of muscles more developed, probably, 

 than a man who had not worked at all." 



This doctrine of Topinard's is practically universally 

 believed and taught, and yet it is, on the face of it, 

 impossible to regard the prominence of the bony ridges as 

 inevitably associated with muscular action in view of the 

 age differences in the bones of the skeleton described by 

 Topinard on the same page. Speaking of the sexual 

 differences in the skeleton, he says: "There is no appreciable 

 difference in the skeleton in infancy, and up to puberty ; its 

 features are rather of a feminine character. At puberty, the- 

 line of demarcation commences, but the characters are not. 

 thoroughly defined until twenty years of age and upwards.. 

 At about forty-five, or upwards, the distinctions of sex 

 become less marked, and at advanced age are but trifling, 

 though the general character of the skeleton is rather 

 masculine." It is, however, impossible to regard these 

 statements of Topinard's as expressing the whole truth with 

 regard to this matter, for if they be somewhat freely, but 

 fairly, paraphrased, and a legitimate deduction be made 

 from them, they read : " Prominence of eminences, processes,, 

 and tubercles upon the bones is associated with muscular 

 action, and is in direct proportion to the activity of the 

 muscles. The bones of old women show more marked 

 ridges than the bones of young men, therefore, old women 

 are more muscular than young men." Which is a true 

 reductio ad dbsurdum. (See Fig. 1.) And yet it cannot be 

 disputed that this time-honoured doctrine embodies at 



