REPORT ON THE BONES OF THE HUMAN SKELETON. 
73 
above 102 bad the lumbar curve concave forwards, Koilorachic (koiXo?, hollow) ; one 
with a general lumbar index below 98 had the curve convex forwards, Kurtorachic 
( KvpTos , arched, convex). 
The data now before us are sufficiently large to enable one to state with certainty 
that the lumbar vertebrae in Europeans are collectively convex forwards, since the mean 
general lumbar index is between 95 and 96 ; and from the low index in my single 
Chinese skeleton it is probable that the mean of this race may also be very distinctly 
kurtorachic. 
On the other hand, in the Australians, the mean general lumbar index is in my 
series 106'0, and in that of Cunningham 107 '8 ; so that the vertebrae are collectively 
deeper behind than in front, and there can, I think, be little doubt that the two Australian 
skeletons in the Oxford Museum articulated by Mr. Charles Robertson will, when measured, 
also show a corresponding relation in the vertical diameter of the lumbar bodies. A 
similar arrangement prevails in the Bush race in which the mean general lumbar index of 
four skeletons, measured by Cunningham and myself, was 106'0. From the measurements 
of my three Oahuans, yielding a mean index of 104, it is probable that the Sandwich 
Islanders are also koilorachic, and the same would apply to Cunningham’s Tasmanians. 
The limited series of Negro and Andaman skeletons at my disposal gave a mean index 
in each case of 99, which would have placed them in the orthorachic category, but the more 
numerous measurements of Cunningham have shown that they possess a higher mean 
lumbar index, which he states to be 105'4 for the Negros, and 104'8 for the Andaman 
Islanders, so that both these races are, without doubt, koilorachic. My single Maori, 
with an index 100, possibly also the Hindoos, Sikh, Laplanders, and Esquimaux, may be 
orthorachic, but the specimens are too few in number to enable one to state with 
certainty the mean general lumbar index in these races. 
As regards the 5th lumbar vertebra, in all the skeletons which I have measured, 
with two exceptions, the vertical diameter of the anterior surface of the body was greater 
than that of the posterior. There are, without doubt, differences in the relative depth. 
The anterior diameter was proportionally greater than the posterior in the Chinese, 
Malay, Esquimaux, Lapps, Europeans, and Andaman Islanders, than was the case in the 
Australians, Bush, Negros, and Hindoos. But in a single Hindoo skeleton, and in the 
Sikh, the posterior diameter of this vertebra was greater than the anterior ; these, how- 
ever, were probably individual exceptions, and this greater depth would assist in giving 
the high lumbar index to these two skeletons. 
In order, in the absence of the discs, to put the lumbar vertebrae approximately 
into the position which they might have had when the discs were in position, I then 
had the vertebrae articulated with each other in several of those spines in which the 
posterior vertical diameter of the bodies markedly exceeded the anterior. In making 
this articulation the upper border of the superior articular facet of the vertebra below 
(ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. — PART XLVII. — 1886.) ^ aa ^ 
