REPORT ON THE BONES OF THE HUMAN SKELETON. 
27 
a. Relations of Breadth and Height. 
In the first instance I shall consider the relations of the breadth and height of the 
entire pelvis, and may premise by stating that when the breadth-height index is high the 
height of the pelvis is great in relation to the breadth, whilst conversely a low breadth- 
height index expresses a broad pelvis in relation to the height. I shall begin by 
referring to some observations on the breadth and height of the pelvis of Europeans. 
Several anatomists and obstetricians have recorded the mean height and breadth of 
the entire pelvis in both the men and women of some of the nations of Europe. 
M. Verneau gives the mean height of sixty-three male pelves, presumably French, as 
220 mm., and of thirty-five female pelves as 197 mm. John Wood’s height-dimensions 
of pelves, presumably British, are for fourteen men 221 mm. (8 inches 7 lines), and for 
eighteen women 190 mm. (7 inches 5 lines). J. G. Garson’s measurement of the pelvic 
height in fourteen European women, without specification of the particular race, is 202 
mm., somewhat higher therefore than those of M. Verneau and J. Wood for the same sex. 
The maximum breadth of the pelvis between the iliac crests is stated by Meckel to be 
211 mm. in meu and 239 in women, by Burns to be 280 mm. (11 inches) in women, by 
Verneau to be 279 mm. in men and 266 in women, and by Garson to be 271 in women. 
From measurements which I have made on pelves in the dissecting room, and therefore 
presumably Scotch, the mean maximum breadth in six men was 300 mm., and in eleven 
women 293 mm. Verneau places the breadth-height index in European males at 79, and 
in females at 74 ; whilst the same index, calculated from Garson’s measurements of 
European women, is 75. C. Martin states that in the Euroj^ean female pelvis the alee of 
the ilium are for the most part translucent, and that the distance between the opposite 
iliac crests and spines is the largest amongst all the races that have been measured. 
Although there is a certain amount of variation in the breadth and height dimensions 
as recorded by the above observers, yet it will be seen, from an examination of the 
preceding tables, that the Sikh was the only pelvis which in its height, 220 mm., and in 
its breadth, 278 mm., equalled the European male standard, and its index 79 corres- 
ponded with the index of Europeans obtained by Verneau ; the male Esquimaux with a 
height of 211 mm., a breadth of 274 mm., and an index 77 closely approached it. 
These deficiencies in breadth and height, as compared with Europeans, are without 
doubt correlated with the shorter stature of the races comprised in the tables, and 
these defects in stature will appear more strongly in the chapter on the bones of the 
shaft of the lower limbs. 
When compared with each other, the pelves measured in this Report exhibited 
differences in the relative proportions of breadth and height, which differences were 
expressed by variations in the breadth-height index. Amongst the female pelves these 
differences were not very great, and ranged from an index of 70 in the single Hindoo and 
