REPORT ON THE BONES OF THE HUMAN SKELETON. 
55 
European pelves, without being able, however, to state its relative frequency. It varied 
in its distinctness in different pelves ; sometimes it was a narrow, shallow, vertical groove, 
so faint as to be just recognisable, in others the groove had considerable depth ; some- 
times it was widened out into a shallow fossa, but in others the fossa was deep. The 
most distinct examples of the sulcus prseauricularis were found in the pelves of the 
Sandwich Island women. From its presence in so many races it cannot be regarded as a 
special character of any particular race. 
Comparative views of the pelvis in various races of men have been figured by Vrolik, 
Weber, von Franque, G. Fritsch, and Verneau, but it has not been the custom to 
represent the different specimens figured according to a uniform plan, so that it is 
difficult to compare the figures of one observer with those of another. It would be 
very desirable therefore to establish some uniform method of representing the pelvis, so 
that, in the absence of the specimens themselves, a comparison may be instituted between 
the published figures of this part of the skeleton. The most nat^^ral position in which to 
place the pelvis for purposes of illustration would obviously be that which it occupies in 
the erect position of the human body. Professor G. H. Meyer, of Zurich, who has care- 
fully inquired into this matter,^ states that, in the erect attitude, the anterior superior 
spines of the ilium, along with the spines of the pubic bones, lie in the same vertical 
plane. This view of the normal position of the pelvis in the erect attitude has been 
confirmed by Dr. Prochownick of Hamburg, who has controlled it by measurements on 
living persons. Although it is possible that these spines may possess individual varia- 
tions, as regards the vertical plane, within certain limits amongst Europeans, or between 
Europeans and other races, yet it is obviously an advantage to have in the illustrations 
of the pelvis a certain fixed standard of comparison. 
The series of figures of the pelvis which illustrate this Report (Plates I., II., III.) have 
therefore all been made from pelves which have been so placed that both the pubic and 
antero-superior iliac spines were in the same vertical plane. The drawings are all 
strictly comparable with each other, and an inspection of them will show not only the 
modifications in the inclination of the ilium and in the form of the pelvic brim but 
some other differences. The cotyloid cavity, for example, varies in its inclination. As 
a rule it is directed outwards and concealed by the os pubis, but in the pelvis of the 
Andaman Islander, the Esquimaux, Guanche, Laplander, and Bushman it partly appears 
from under cover of the pubis, and in the Sandwich Island woman it comes very con- 
siderably into view. The direction of the pubic arch also is not uniform. In the male 
Australian, Negro, Sikh, and Andaman Islander, for example, the rami are in this position 
— that of the erect attitude — so directed backwards, that but little of the arch is visible ; 
whilst in the female Sandwich Islander, the male Malay, and Esquimaux the arch 
approaches nearer to the vertical and is much more seen. Differences in the direction 
1 Lehrbuch der Physiologischen Anatomie des Menschen, p. 119, Leipsic, 1856. 
