REPORT ON THE BONES OF THE HUMAN SKELETON. 
81 
SCAPULA. 
The scapulae belonging to the skeletons from which the pelves were obtained, were 
examined with reference to their form and proportions. In all, twenty-nine pairs were 
under observation, and with the exception of the male and female Laplanders they were 
not the scapulae of Europeans. 
In the Australians the scapulae were as a rule smaller than in Europeans of the same 
sex ; the axillary border was somewhat more concave, and the borders of the infraspinous 
fossa sloped more rapidly to the inferior angle. The suprascapular notch was distinct in 
each bone, although in the Riverina and Perth skeletons it was shallow. Both the 
acromion process and spine were well developed. The small size of the scapulae in the 
Bush skeleton conformed with the diminutive stature of the race. In the right bone the 
suprascapular notch was present, though shallow, but in the left bone, in which the 
supraspinous fossa was deep anteriorly, the notch was converted into a foramen by a 
broad plate of bone. The right acromion and spine were present, but on the left side 
they were absent, either through non-development or removal early in life. 
In four of the Negro skeletons the suprascapular notch was distinct, and in one of 
these especially so ; but in a fifth skeleton the superior border of each scapula was deeply 
falciform, and the suprascapular notch was not differentiated. 
In the Andaman Islanders the scapulae were small, slender, and with the muscular 
impressions not strongly pronounced. In three skeletons a shallow suprascapular notch 
had been differentiated at the root of the coracoid, but in the fourth the superior border 
of the scapula was falciform and the notch was not specialised. This latter character of 
the scapula in these islanders was observed by Prof. Flower, who states that in only three 
of the large series which he examined was a distinct notch present, and that, especially 
in the females, the superior border was deeply excavated. 
In the Maori from Otago the axillary border was falciform, owing to a broad process 
projecting forwards from it at the anterior limit of attachment of the teres major ; the 
infraspinous region therefore presented considerable breadth near the inferior angle, and the 
plate-like character of the bone was increased. The superior border of the right scapula 
formed a continuous concavity, and was without a suprascapular notch ; but in the left 
bone an oblique foramen pierced the supraspinous fossa close to the base of the coracoid, 
and had without doubt transmitted the suprascapular nerve ; the notch therefore in this 
bone was crossed by an osseous bridge. The scapulas of the Sandwich Island women 
from Oahu were thin and light ; in the one the suprascapular notch was shallow, in the 
other it was of ordinary depth. 
In the female Hindoo the scapulae were slender, and in them and those of the smaller 
male the suprascapular notch was shallow ; but in the tall male these bones were much 
(ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. — PART XLVII. 1886.) -^ aa H 
