REPORT ON THE BONES OF THE HUMAN SKELETON. 
63 
The transverse processes of the 1st lumbar vertebra were short and rudimentary in 
an Australian, a Sandwich Islander, and the Malay. These processes were relatively 
short in the four upper lumbar vertebrae of the Chinese. In the spine of the Sikh these 
processes in the 3rd lumbar were very long. In one of the Andaman Islanders and 
two Australians one or both transverse processes of the 5th lumbar articulated with the 
base of the sacrum. In another Andaman Islander the inferior articular process of 
the last lumbar was prolonged outwards, especially on the right side, so as almost to 
reach the transverse process. 
In the Queensland skeleton the body of the 5 th lumbar had been modified in its 
development, though not to the same extent as the 10th dorsal vertebra in the Maori 
skeleton from Otago (fig. 1). Its anterior, upper, and lower surfaces were grooved a little 
to the left side of the mesial plane, so as to give the appearance of a division of the body 
into a right and left lateral wedge-shaped portion, of which the right was the larger. 
These divisions had, however, fused together, so that they were not separated by a mesial 
cleft ; the body had thus the appearance of having been developed from two originally 
distinct lateral centres, which had subsequently fused together. 
Imperfections in the development of the neural arch of the 5th lumbar vertebra were 
not unfrequent. In a male Andaman Islander, and in the Chinese, the right and left 
halves of the lumbar spine had not united mesially. In five skeletons the part of the 
neural arch which formed the two laminae, the spine and the inferior pair of articular 
Fig. 2.— Fifth lumbar vertebra from a Malay skeleton, showing the divided condition of the laminar part of the arch. • 
processes, had been developed independently of the part of the arch which formed the 
two peduncles, the transverse processes and the superior pair of articular processes. This 
irregular development was seen in its most pronounced form in the Malay skeleton, in 
which not only the lamina and inferior articular process on each side formed a j)late 
