[March, 
138 The Upright Attitude of Mankind. 
Prof. Weber, of Bonn, quoted in Karl Vogt’s “ Vorlesungen 
liber den Menschen,” distinguishes four chief forms of the 
pelvis in mankind, — the oval in Aryans, the round among 
the Red Indians, the square in the Mongols, and the wedge- 
shaped in the Negro. Examining this question mechanically 
it would seem that the longer a race had remained in an 
upright position the lower is the sacrum, and the greater is 
the tendency to approximate to the larger lateral diameter 
of the European female. The front to back diameter of the 
ape’s pelvis is usually greater than the measurement from 
side to side. A similar condition affords the cuneiform, 
from which it may be inferred that the ereCt position in the 
Negro has not been maintained so long as in the Mongol, 
whose pelvis has assumed the quadrilateral shape owing to 
persistence of spinal axis weight for a greater time. This 
pressure has finally culminated in forcing the sacrum of 
the European nearer the pubes, with consequent lateral ex- 
pansion and contraction of the diameter from front to back. 
From the marsupials to the lemurs the box-shaped pelvis 
remains. With the wedge-shape occasioned in the lowest 
human types there occurs a further remarkable phenomenon 
in the increased size of the foetal head accompanying the 
contraction of the pelvic outlet. While the marsupial head 
is about one-sixth the size of the narrowest part of the bony 
parturient canal, the moment we pass to ereCt animals the 
greater relative increase is there seen in cranial size, with a 
coexisting decrease in the area of the outlet. This altered 
condition of things has caused the death of millions of 
otherwise perfectly healthy and well-formed human mothers 
and children. The palaeontologist might tell us if some 
such case of ischial approximation by natural mechanical 
causes has not caused the probable extinction of whole 
genera of Vertebrates. “ If we are to believe that for our 
original sin the pangs and labour of childbirth were increased, 
and if we also believe in the disproportionate contraction of 
the pelvic space being an efficient cause of the same diffi- 
culties of parturition, the logical inference is that man’s 
original sin consisted in his getting upon his hind legs.” 
This subject is not without direCt applications. Ac- 
coucheurs cause their patients to assume what is called the 
knee-chest position, a prone one, for the purpose of restoring 
the uterus to something near a natural position. Brown- 
Sequard recommends, in myelitis, or spinal congestion, 
drawing away the blood from the spine by placing the 
patient on his abdomen or side, with hands and feet some- 
what hanging down. The liability to spina bifida is greatest 
