REPORT ON THE BONES OF THE HUMAN SKELETON. 
47 
101 mm. as the mean length of the sacrum in fourteen European women, and the mean 
breadth as 1 1 8 ' 3 , which yield an index of 1 1 6 '8, slightly higher than that furnished by 
M. A erneau s measurements, but not so high as those of Gortz. But from Carl Martin’s 
measurements of sixteen pelves, presumably German, the sacral length was 100 mm., the 
breadth 105 mm., and the index therefore only 105. Wbisbach in Ins essay, already 
referred to, on the pelvis of the men of the Austrian empire, has given the dimensions of 
the sacrum. As he measures the breadth of that bone at its base, on the level of the 
llio-pectineal line, he does not select that part of the base which has the greatest breadth, 
and consequently the sacral index computed from his measurements is less than if the 
widest part of the base had been chosen, wherever it may happen to be. The sacral 
index in his specimens, on his mode of measurement, is as follows : — Czechs 102 ‘6, 
Italians 100’9, Buthenians 100‘8, Magyars 99T, Gipsies 97*3, South Slavs 96‘5, 
Germans 95, Poles 94'9, Roumanians 94'5, Slowaks 90. The index in all these cases is 
undoubtedly lower than would have been the case if the sacral breadth had been taken 
in the same way as that which I have employed, so that I have little doubt that the 
great bulk of these pelves had, according to my mode of measurement, a sacral index above 
100. 1 In Europeans, therefore, both males and females, the mean diameter of the base of 
the sacrum was greater than that of its long axis ; or in other words it was platyhieric. 
In the Australians, again, an opposite relation prevails. In only one of the six adult 
males measured in Table I. was the breadth of the sacrum at the base greater than its 
length, in two these diameters were equal, and in the remaining three the length 
exceeded the breadth. The mean sacral index, therefore, of the males was only 98, and in 
the single adult female this index was only 101. In a male measured by Keferstein the 
index was 88, in one by Barnard Davis 90, and in five males measured by Spengel it 
was 111, 106, 97, 89, and 111 respectively. In the single male Australian measured by 
Yerneau the sacral breadth at the base is stated to be 105 mm. and the length only 
87 mm. ; but the latter diameter is so small for an adult male of this race, that one is 
disposed to think there must be either some error in the table, or that the sacrum could 
not have been normal; the index furnished by these measurements, 120, is therefore 
exceptionally high. The sacral index of a female measured by Barnard Davis was 89, 
and the mean index computed from the two females measured by Yerneau was 105 ’9, 
and the mean sacral index of the five women measured by Garson was 114. Excluding, 
therefore, M. Yerneau’s male pelvis for the reason given above, it is clear that in the 
Australian men the breadth of the sacrum was small in relation to its length, so that in 
a considerable proportion the index did not exceed 100, and the mean of the thirteen 
males was 98 '5, i.e., they were dolichohieric. In the women, again, the sacrum was 
1 I have tested this by the measurement of several pelves, both European and Australian. In the Europeans the 
greatest width of the sacrum was from 2 to 9 mm. more than the width opposite the iliopectineal lines ; in the 
Australian pelves the greatest width varied from 5 to 8 mm. more than the width opposite these lines. 
