KEPOET ON THE BONES OF THE HUMAN SKELETON. 
13 
smoothness of tlie bones were well marked. They had evidently been buried in sand ; 
with one exception they were light and friable and semitranslucent in the iliac fossa. 
The wings of the ilia were expanded, especially in L. The maximum breadth was 
275 mm., the minimum 229, and the mean of three pelves was 252 mm. The 
maximum height was 195 mm., the minimum 174, and the mean of five pelves was 
182 mm. The mean breadth-height index was 72. The breadth between the antero- 
superior iliac spines was more than twice as great as that between the postero- 
superior spines. The greatest diameter of the cotyloid ranged from 43 to 52 mm. 
The mean vertical diameter of the obturator foramen was 46 mm., and the mean 
transverse was 34 mm., whilst the mean obturator index was 73. The subpubic angle 
ranged from 84° to 102°. 
The pelvic brim did not possess a cuneiform but an oval shape, the long axis of 
the oval being transverse. The mean transverse diameter was 128 mm., the mean 
conjugate 107 mm. Owing to the transverse diameter in each pelvis being so much in 
excess of the conjugate, the mean pelvic or brim index was 83. The intertuberal diameter 
was either equal to or in excess of the transverse diameter of the brim. The mean 
inferior sagittal diameter was 109 mm., which was slightly above the mean conjugate. 
The pubic symphysis ranged in depth from 34 to 37 mm.; the pelvic cavity from 
84 to 96 mm., the mean depth being 90 mm. The pubo-innominate index had a mean 
of 45. The maximum length of the Uium was 118 mm., the minimum 101, and the 
mean iliac index was 144. The maximum length of the ischium was 90 mm., the 
minimum 75 mm. In all these pelves the ilium was longer than the ischium ; in A. 
the ischium was three-fourths the length of the ilium, in I. and M. something more 
than three-fourths, in B. something less than three-fourths, and in L. the ischium was 
six-sevenths the length of the ilium. The mean ischio-innominate index was 44*6. In 
each pelvis the breadth of the sacrum exceeded the length and contributed materially 
to the great transverse diameter of the pelvic brim which one finds in these female 
pelves. The sacral index was therefore high, and had a mean of 113. In the sacrum 
of the Tonga Islander the sacral breadth was considerably in excess of the length, and 
the sacral index was 115. 
The two New Zealand pelves were males, the one from Otago, the other was found in 
a cave at Te Aroha,^ Auckland. The wings of the ilia were moderately expanded ; the Otago 
pelvis was thin in the iliac fossae. The Auckland pelvis exceeded that from Otago in its 
dimensions, but the latter had not reached its full magnitude, as the epiphyses were only 
partially ankylosed. The ilia and ossa pubis had unfortunately been broken in the 
Auckland pelvis. The measurements, so far as they could be made, are given in 
1 Mr. A. C. Purclias, M.B., by whom tlie imperfect skeleton of this Maori was presented to the Museum, told me 
that the bones were found by his brother in 1883, in a recess in the cave, which was the usual mode of bujial in former 
times amongst the natives. 
