NOTES ON THE SKELETON OF AN ABORIGINAL 
AUSTRALIAN. 
BY 
A. MACALISTER, M.D., 
Professor of Comparative Anatomy, University of Dublin. 
[Read November 19th, 1877.] 
THE Museum of the Dublin University has recently received a 
fine skeleton of an aboriginal Australian, which is a valuable 
addition to its ethnological department. I am indebted to Dr. 
R. Tuthill Massy, of Brighton, for this interesting donation, and 
have made a careful series of measurements and observations on 
it, the results of which I have embodied in this paper. 
The stature was small, 5’ 14”, which is about the average for 
Australian natives; though I am informed by Dr. Johnston, of 
this city, who has had extensive experiences of these races, that 
in some tribes, much taller individuals are common; and that on 
one occasion he met with an encampment of natives on the Murray 
river, many of whom were six feet high. Such are, however, 
exceptional, for the general consensus of opinion is that “ ony) 
few could be said to be tall and still fewer to be well made.” 
(Collins’ Account, p. 356.) 
_ The skeleton is that of a male, known and employed as a mes- 
senger, and who had been known to travel seventy miles in a 
day. The proportions are as follows compared with the standard 
in Professor Humphry’s Work :— 
TABLE I, 
: Height. Spine, Humerus. Radius. Femur, Tibia. 
- Australian,. 1-00 - "203 “151 "286 "226 
’ Trishmen, . 1°00 "340 194 154 270 225 
Negroes, . 1°00 “311 195 ‘151 "274 "232 
- Bushmen, . 1:00 "314 “20 153 277 2389 
Bushwoman, 1:00 333 182 "131 264 ‘2108 
To represent more accurately the relationships of the inter- 
membral lengths, I append the following three tables :— 
