REPORT ON THE BONES OF THE HUMAN SKELETON. 
95 
M. Topinard it was 78, and in two Chinese and Japanese women it was 77'9 ; in a male 
Chinese recorded by Spengel it was 79 '2; the mean measurements by Barnard Davis 
of two male Japanese was 82, and in a female Aino the index was 75. The radio - 
humeral index in my Malay skeleton was 81, in a male Banda Islander in the Gottingen 
collection, recorded both by Keferstein^ and by Spengel, it was 78 "2, and in the Kubu 
skeleton measured by Garson it was 74 "l. 
In the male Esquimaux, which I measured, the radio-humeral index was 69 '6, and in 
the female 76, whilst in a male Esquimaux measured by M. Topinard this index was 
69'8. In a male Samoyed, also recorded by Topinard, this index was 72'9. In my male 
Lapp the radio-humeral index was 68, and in the female 74. 
I have not myself had the opportunity of measuring the bones of the shaft of the 
upper limb in any skeleton of the American aborigines. Barnard Davis has given the 
radio-humeral index in an Illinois Indian as 80, in a South American Puelche Indian as 
75, and in an ancient Peruvian also as 75. M, Topinard has recorded the radio- 
humeral index of five male South American Indians as 77 '4, and of six females also 
as 77 "4. Dr. Garson, in his recent memoir on the Yahgan tribe of the inhabitants of 
Tierra del Fuego, has placed the radio-humeral index of five male skeletons at 81 '3. 
From this general review of the results which have been obtained by those anato- 
mists who have measured the relative lengths of the radius and humerus in difierent races 
of men, it is evident that an appreciable disparity exists in the lengths of these two bones, 
and that the forearm, in proportion to the upper arm, is longer in some races than in 
others. In estimating, however, what this disparity is, one experiences a similar difiiculty 
to that which one had to contend with in the study of race difierences in the pelvis, 
viz., the comparatively small number of specimens of some of the races which have 
as yet been measured, so that it is impossible to speak with certainty of the average index 
in them. Sufficiefit material, however, seems to have been collected to enable one to 
make a provisional grouping, based on these difierences, in the radio-humeral index. At 
one end of the series we find the natives of Western Europe, with the Lapps and the 
Esquimaux, possessing a low index, and at the opposite end the Andaman Islanders, 
Negritos, and Yahgan Fuegians with a high radio-humeral index ; whilst the most 
important and most numerous of the black races, some of the yellow races, and probably 
the Continental American Indians, occupy an intermediate position. The extremes are 
so far asunder that it seems possible to make three groups, as follows : — those in which 
this index is below 75, those in which it is 80 or upwards, and those in which the radio- 
humeral index ranges from 75 to 79 "9, both inclusive. Those with a low index, i.e., 
with a relatively short forearm, may be called hrachyherkic (KepKi^, radius) ; those with 
a high index, i.e., a relatively long forearm, may be called dolichokerkic ; whilst those 
' Bemerkungen iiber das Skelett eines Australiers, Dresden, 1865. 
