REPORT ON THE BONES OF THE HOMAN SKELETON. 
93 
humeral index 7 2 '4. M. Broca 1 obtained 73 '9 as the mean radio-humeral index of nine 
Europeans, fire men and four women. M. Hamy, 2 who measured the maximum length 
of the humerus, obtained a mean of 72 '1 in European skeletons. M. Topinard gives 3 
the mean radio-humeral index of one series of eighty-five European male skeletons as 
72 '5, of another series of fifty-five as 73, and of a third series of ten as 74 ’7 ; the mean 
of the whole being 73‘4; whilst the mean in twenty-six European women was 72*4. 
Professor Flower 4 states that the mean of fourteen European skeletons which he measured 
was 73-9, and this number corresponds exactly with the results obtained by M. Broca 
from the measurements of his nine skeletons. 
In my series of six male Australians the radio-humeral index varied from 78 in the 
Eucla skeleton to 74 in that from Perth, and the mean of the series was 76 '5, whilst in 
the single female the index was 7 7. The mean index of three Australians recorded by 
Topinard was 76 ‘6, that of eleven skeletons measured by Flower was 76'5, that of four 
skeletons measured by Spengel in the Blumenbach collection in Gottingen was 76*4, 
in Ecker’s young Australian the index was 73, and in Keferstein’s old skeleton 79. 
From the measurements, therefore, of the above twenty-seven skeletons, we are in a 
position to state with some certainty that the mean radio-humeral index in the 
aboriginal Australians lies between 76 and 77, and that in this race, as in the Negros, 
the radius is longer in proportion to the humerus than in Europeans. 
The radio-humeral index in two of the Oahuan female skeletons which possessed 
the upper limbs w T as 79 and 75 respectively, the mean being 77; and in two male New r 
Zealanders it was 75 and 78, with a mean of 76 - 5. The measurements of the bones of 
the upper limb of some Pacific Islanders have also been taken by M. Topinard, who gives 
the mean radio-humeral index of eight New Caledonians at 76, and five Polynesians also 
at 76. Barnard Davis has given the radio-humeral index of a male Loyalty Islander as 
77, of a male Tannese as 83, and Spengel 5 has recorded this index in an “ Alfuru ” as 797. 
Spengel has also given the mean lengths of the humerus in Fijians 6 as 3 15 '5 mm., and 
that of the radius as 264 mm., wdiich yield an index 83’6. E. Tiingel states' that the 
mean length of the humerus in the skeletons collected by Dr. A. B. Meyer in the 
neighbourhood of Rubi, at the south end of Geelvink Bay, New Guinea, was 3 13 ‘8 mm., 
1 M. Broca measured tlie length of the humerus from the head to the radial articular surface, which is somewhat 
less than the maximum length; so that the radio-humeral index which he obtained is a little higher than when the 
maximum length is taken. 
2 Les proportions du Bras and de l’Avant-bras in Revue d’ Anthropologic, t. i. p. 91, 1872. 
3 Anthropology, English Translation, 1878, and Moments d’Anthropologie generate, Paris, 1885. 
4 The references to authorities on the Bones of the Limbs, except when otherwise stated, are the same as those 
given in the Bibliography of the Pelvis, pp. 3, 4, 5. 
5 See Table, p. 96, in Supplement to Thesaurus Cranium, by Barnard Davis. 
B Journal des Mu,s. Godeffroy, Heft, iv., 1873. I quote the mean length of the humerus and radius from Tiingel’s 
Memoir, which yield the index stated above, though Tiingel himself places the relation of the radial to the humeral 
length as 79'3. 
7 Messungen von Skeletknochen der Papuas, Mittheil. aus dem K. Zoolog. Museum zu Dresden, Heft, i., 18<7. 
