REPORT ON THE BONES OF THE HUMAN SKELETON. 
113 
In all the races of men the femur very materially exceeds the humerus in length, 
hut the proportionate excess is not the same in all the races which have been measured. 
We may, I think, accept 72 ’5 as expressing the mean femoro-humeral index in Europeans. 
In the Lapps and Esquimaux, if I may take the four skeletons which I have measured as 
average samples of these races, the mean index rises considerably above the European 
standard, and of all the races the bones of whose limbs have been measured, they show 
the greatest proportion of humeral length, and approximate therefore to, though still 
widely removed from, the proportion in the ape. On the other hand the black races of 
Australia and Africa, the Pacific Islanders and the Negritos of the Andaman Islands, all 
have a less femoro-humeral index than the Europeans. It is probable that in the Chinese, 
Malays, and the natives of India, the humerus is also shorter in relation to the length of 
the femur than in the Europeans. It follows therefore that, in the relative proportion of 
femur to humerus, the European, and still more the Laplander and the Esquimaux, possess 
a character approaching more to the ape than those black races, which from certain other 
characters we are in the habit of speaking of as the lower races of mankind. 
The intermembral index in my three chimpanzees ranged from 102 to 107, with the 
mean of 104'6, and in Professor Humphry’s specimens the mean index was 103’5 ; the 
bones of the shaft of the upper limb, therefore, somewhat exceeded in length the bones of 
the shaft of the lower limb. In the orang these bones in the upper limb were very 
materially longer than those in the lower limb ; in my specimen the index was 141, and 
the mean of Professor Humphry’s two skeletons was also 141. In the gorilla the upper 
limb, though longer than the lower, is intermediate in its relative proportions to the 
chimpanzee and orang ; the mean intermembral index of Professor Humphry’s three 
specimens was 117, and the index computed from Mr. Mivart’s measurements was 119. 
In all the races of men the length of the bones of the shaft of the lower limb was very 
considerably in excess of that of the bones of the upper limb, so that the intermembral 
index was much below 100. But amongst these races a range of variation within certain 
limits was recognised. In Europeans the mean intermembral index was obviously about 
69 ’5, but in the Lapps, Esquimaux, and Fuegians this index was distinctly higher than 
in the Europeans, so that in this respect these races approached nearer to the ape in this 
character. On the other hand this index in the black races was distinctly below the 
European mean, and it is probable that a similar lower ratio will be found when more 
extensive measurements have been made of Mongolians and Malays. 
From the comparison which has now been made of the relative proportions of the 
bones of the shafts of the limbs, one arrives at the conclusion, that such a physical 
degradation as is implied by the possession of characters which approximate to those of the 
Anthropoid apes, is not constantly found in one particular race or group of races, as to lead 
one to say, that in all respects, in the proportions of their limbs, such race or group of races 
is constructed on a more ape-like pattern than the other races. In the relative length of 
(zool. chall. exp. — part xlvii. — 1886.) Aaa 15 
