HORN EXPEDITION—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
21 
The anterioi’ curvature for which I propose the name Camptocnemia, so far as 
I could see, was not usually associated with any pathological conditions visible in 
the living subject,* on the contrary the natives thus affected, with the one 
exception mentioned, were neither more nor less healthy and well nourished than 
those in which the peculiarity was not observable. 
The question is, “ to what extent is this curvature to be regarded as a racial 
character or pathological condition V’ It certainly has no resemblance to the 
ordinary curvature of rickets, and no other evidence of rickets, syphilis or tuber¬ 
culosis could be detected in the cases that came under my notice, even in the 
emaciated girl referred to. 
Dr. Gardner,! however, has described a case of a boy aged sixteen, a native 
of Aneitum, who had suffered from malaria; here both the flattening and the 
curvature were present and were apparently of pathological origin. In the same 
paper it is stated, on the authority of Dr. Paton, formeidy Missionary to the New 
Hebrides group, that this disease of the bones which, inter alia, leads to swelling 
deformity and curvature exists in all the Southern Islands of the New Hebrides, 
and probably throughout the whole group.!. 
While some degree of simple platycnemia is a common feature in Australian 
natives generally, I have not frequently observed the curvature in those near 
the shores either of the southern or northern coasts; of the natives of other parts 
of Australia my experience is limited. In the interior, at least from Charlotte 
Waters to the McDonnell Ranges, the latter condition is certainly of very common 
occurrence and apparently exists in association with the former so far, at least, as 
can be observed in the living body. References to the subject are not frequent, 
but a curvature of the tibhe is alluded to by Topinard,|j who states that “in 200 
Parisian tibiie collected from the St. Marcel and St. Germain-des-Pres cemeteries, 
dating from the fourth to the tenth century, 5‘25 per cent, were platycnemic and 
14 per cent, were bent. The latter peculiarity is not uncommon in old graves,” 
but particulars as to the curvature are not given, though in another place the 
* It is rif^ht to mention that since the above statement was written I have heard from Mr. Gillen, whom I asked 
to continue my investigations on the subject, that he considers these bent legs are generally associated with delicate 
physique in both sexes, and that he considers them a sign of constitutional disease. He mentions a girl at Alice 
Springs, about fourteen years of age, far gone in consumption, who has this deformity; a sister, who died of 
consumption, was similarly affected, but on the other hand, in another sister with consumptive aspect there is no 
curv.ature. The curve is not manifest in the father, mother and two brothers, who are strong and healthy. Mr. 
Gillen is under the impression that the curvature is more common in males than in females. 
t Intercolonial quarterly Journal of Medicine and Surgery. May, 1SS5. 
t This is confirmed by Professor Watson, who has seen the curvature in natives of Vanikoro and Mallicolo. 
II Anthropology, by Dr. Paul Topinard (Eng. transL). 
