LXI.  FORM OF THE SUPERIOR BORDER
OF THE SCAPULA IN THE MUNSEE AND
IN OTHER RACIAL GROUPS

The data obtained in this particular on the Munsee and other Indian groups, as well as on a large series of whites, are given in the next table. It is very evident that racial and tribal differences of some importance exist in the shape of the border. Among the whites its most common form is type 2, or moderate to medium oblique, pronounced obliquity being infrequent; types 4 and 5 occur but rarely. In the Munsee there is a curious but doubtless local prevalence of the semilunar type 5, the next most frequent form being that of pronounced obliquity; and one-fourth of the cases show the saddle form or an approach to it. Among other Indians the conditions differ. The cliff-dwellers of southern Utah come, on the whole, near to the whites; among the Mexican Indians low borders prevail, while among the Northwest Coast tribes we find the opposite condition—high borders, with a relative frequency of the angular or saddle-shaped type (4 or near 4). It is an interesting fact that the last named form (4) is frequent and often highly developed in the Eskimo.

The question occurs as to how the form of the superior border differs in the two sexes and on the two sides, and the next table throws some light on these problems. It will be observed that among the Indians the differences between the males and the females are not striking, though there is a tendency toward greater obliquity of the border in the males. Among the whites, types 1 and 4 are more common in the females than in the males; type 2 occurs about the same number of times in the two sexes, while types 3 and 5 are more frequent in the males.

LXII.  FORM OF THE SUPERIOR BORDER IN
MUNSEE AND OTHER INDIAN SCAPULÆ
ACCORDING TO SEX AND SIDE

As to the two sides, we find that a slightly lesser tendency to marked obliquity of the border exists in the left than in the right scapula; while the bone of the right side shows greater frequency of the angular or deep saddle-shaped (type 4 or near 4).

Scapular notch.—The notch in the scapular border, at the base of the coracoid, which, as is well known, transmits the suprascapular nerve, may be absent, shallow, medium deep, or converted into a complete foramen. Among the 21 scapulæ of the Munsee and 431 of whites, the conditions in this respect, with reference to sex and side, are as follows:

LXIII.  SCAPULAR NOTCH IN THE MUNSEE
AND IN WHITES

It is plain that while among the whites the medium form of the notch very largely predominates, among the Munsee this form is absent, though this is doubtless accidental to some extent at least, owing to the relatively small number of specimens. The complete foramen is much more frequent in the Munsee than in the whites.

As to the sexes, in both the Munsee and the whites there is observable a predominance of the deeper forms and the complete foramen among the males, and of the shallower forms and the complete absence of the notch in the females.

As to sides, no characteristic differences in the notch appear.

Ribs

Owing to careful collection, a large majority of the ribs from the Munsee cemetery were preserved and are with their respective skeletons, thus facilitating their study. Furthermore, we possess nearly all the bones of the spines, which show the rib facets.

The ribs present are marked throughout by medium and normal development. Fractures are very rare, there being only two (in one subject) among the 166 ribs of the males, and but one in 196 ribs of the females.[78] This speaks well for the peaceful life of the community.

The number of ribs is normal (24) in every one of the adult males; among the females, however, there are two interesting anomalies—namely: In female no. 285,311 there are 25 ribs, the additional one being well developed, 6.5 cm. long, right cervical; this rib approaches in form the ordinary first rib, while both the latter are unusually long, being about one-third longer than any of the other female first ribs in the series. The spinal formula in this case, curiously enough, is only 7-12-4, the fifth lumbar being attached to the sacrum. The second anomaly is present in female skeleton no. 285,321, with the spinal formula of 7-11-5, and consists of the absence of the last pair of ribs. The congenitally absent dorsal vertebra is the twelfth.

The first rib generally repays special examination, particularly as to its shape. This shows three main types—(1) the curved; (2) the mono-angular or pistol-shaped, with a nearly straight neck and straight body; and (3) the biangular, in which, besides the angle between the neck and the body, there is another distinct angle in the body itself, so that the rib appears as if it consisted of three segments. The relative frequency of these forms the author has reason to believe will be found to differ in the race and sex, but as a rule it is the same on both sides. In the Munsee the shapes found were as follows:

LXIV.  MUNSEE: SHAPE OF RIBS

The biangular form, which is fairly frequent in whites, is nearly absent in the Munsee, the one pair in the males presenting merely an approach to the form.

Spine

The entire number of vertebræ of 21 skeletons has been preserved, thus affording an excellent opportunity for studying the numerical relations of the bones, as well as other particulars.

The bones are entirely normal, with the exception of the frequent slightly to moderately developed marginal exostoses (which, unless premature or excessive, the author regards more and more as the usual manifestations of age rather than of disease), and one case of advanced spondylitis deformans, resulting in fusion of the lower half of the spine and the sacrum. The bones show moderate to medium development and are free from gross anomalies.

As to numbers, the cervical vertebræ show but one exception to the normal—namely, in male skeleton no. 285,326, in which only six vertebræ are present in this region. The locus of the (congenitally) missing one is between the third and the sixth, its exact identity being difficult to determine. In one of the females (no. 285,311) the seventh cervical, as already mentioned, gives attachment on the right to a well developed cervical rib (pl. 25, a).

The vertebræ of the dorsal region are also normal in number in all cases but one, which has been mentioned in connection with the ribs; it is no. 285,321, female, and presents a congenital absence of the twelfth vertebra.

The numbers of the lumbar vertebræ show frequent variation. In two of the ten males and two of the eleven females there are but four lumbars, while in one female there are six. In detail we find the following abnormalities:

In male skeleton no. 285,316, the fifth lumbar shows a transitional, sacral form, though not attached to the sacrum, and it also presents a detachment of the posterior part of its neural arch.

In male no. 285,326, one of the lumbar vertebræ between the second and fifth is absent congenitally.

In female no. 285,310, one of the lumbar vertebræ is missing congenitally; the last lumbar in this case is in form like the fifth; the upper segment of the sacrum is somewhat lumbar-like, but the bone possesses only five segments and a normal curvature.

In female no. 285,311, with four lumbar vertebræ, the fifth, somewhat modified, is attached to the sacrum (pl. 27).

In female no. 285,326, where we have six lumbar vertebræ, the last, like the lowest lumbar in male no. 285,316, shows a separation of the posterior portion of the neural arch.

In male no. 285,308, the twelfth dorsal and the first lumbar show complete and evidently early non-pathological fusion.

Sacrum

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND MEASUREMENTS

The total number of serviceable specimens of sacra is 17, only 13 of which, however (six males and seven females), are five-segment bones and sufficiently well preserved to afford the necessary measurements. The results show that, as usual, the male sacrum, while in breadth nearly equal to that of the female, is perceptibly higher, in consequence of which the sacral index, or percental relation of breadth to height, is lower in the males.

A comparison of the Munsee sacra with those of other Indians and United States whites shows marked agreement both in size and in the relative proportions of the bone in the males, but less in the females. As will be seen by the next table, the Munsee female sacrum is somewhat lower than that of any of the other series.[79]

LXV.  MUNSEE SACRUM: DIMENSIONS

• LEGEND:
• A = Number of specimens
• B = Height[80]
• C = Breadth, maximum
• D = Index (B×100/H)

Emmons, who a few years ago, with the writer’s assistance, conducted an examination of 217 Indian female pelves,[81] obtained as a total average of his specimens (which however include also sacra of more than five segments), for the height 10 cm., breadth 11.5 cm., and index 115.8—figures which stand in close accord with the above. In the Negro race and in the Australians the sacrum, as is well known, is relatively narrower; and in much larger degree this is also the case in the anthropoid apes. The relatively broad and short sacrum of the whites and the Indians may therefore be regarded as a feature of an advanced evolutionary character.

LXVI.  SACRUM: COMPARATIVE DATA

• LEGEND:
• A = Number of specimens[82]

SEGMENTS

Among the eight male Munsee sacra in which determination of the number of segments is feasible, six show five and two show six vertebræ, while among the 12 female bones there are 10 with five and two with six segments. We have thus four six-segmented sacra in 20, or 20 per cent. Emmons, in 217 female Indian pelves, found six segments in 19.8 per cent of the cases.

Among additional specimens examined by the writer, in 53 sacra of the southern Utah cliff-dwellers, five vertebræ were present in 37, or 70 per cent; six in 15, or 28 per cent; and seven in one, or 2 per cent. Of 42 sacra of Southwestern and Mexican Indians, 31, or 74 per cent, showed five; 10, or 24 per cent, six; and one, or 2 per cent, seven segments. As to whites, among 503 sacra of miscellaneous Americans of both sexes, five segments were present in only 66.4 per cent of the bones; six segments in 31 per cent; seven segments in 2 per cent, and eight in 0.4 per cent, while the whole coccyx was attached, non-pathologically, in one instance. The frequency of more than five vertebræ in the sacrum is therefore slightly to decidedly less in probably all the tribes of Indians than in the United States whites.

CURVATURE

The curvature of the sacrum in the Munsee can be described in 18 of the 20 specimens as medium, while in two (one male and one female) it is submedium. This agrees closely with the author’s observations on this feature in other Indians. In the United States whites the proportion of regular and medium forms is smaller, while not infrequently there exists in the sacrum of whites a pronounced curvature, which is very rare in the Indian. Among 115 Indian sacra from Arkansas, Louisiana, the Southwest, and Mexico, the writer found moderate or medium curvature in 75, or 65 per cent; submedium to slight in 24, or 21 per cent; and pronounced (though never excessively) in 16, or 14 per cent. Among the 217 specimens examined by Emmons, moderate or medium curvature was present in 148, or a little more than 67 per cent; submedium in 52, or 24 per cent; and pronounced in 18, or 8 per cent.

The curve of the sacrum begins in the Munsee (and the same is true of other Indians) in a majority of cases with the first or upper-most segment, but in numerous instances with the second vertebra. More in detail, among the 20 Munsee sacra, in 13, or 65 per cent, the curve began with the first; in six, or 30 per cent, with the second; and in one, or 5 per cent of the cases, with the third vertebra. Among 113 sacra of both sexes from Arkansas, Louisiana, the Southwest, and Mexico, examined by the writer, the curve began in 52, or 46 per cent of the cases, with the first; in 42, or 37 per cent, with the second; in 14, or 12 per cent, with the third; and in five, or 4 per cent, with the fourth vertebra. In the female series studied by Emmons, the curve began in 41.5 per cent of the cases with the first; in 27 per cent with the second; in 22.5 per cent with the third; in 7.4 per cent with the fourth; and in 1.8 per cent with the fifth segment. Among whites, in 224 sacra of five segments examined by the writer, the curve began with the first vertebra in 87 per cent; with the second in 5.4 per cent; and with the third in 7.6 per cent of the cases. It is therefore evident that the anterior curve of the sacrum begins more frequently higher up in the whites than in the Indians. This peculiarity is probably connected with a somewhat greater curvature, even on the average, in the sacrum of whites.

Ossa Innominata and Pelvis

THE OSSA INNOMINATA

The total number of adult innominate bones of the Munsee, available for examination and measurement, is 37, and in general the bones are remarkable for their regular development, with complete freedom from pathological conditions and from the more important anomalies. They are also of medium dimensions and weight throughout.

The measurements of the bones show that in the paired specimens, in both sexes, they are of nearly the same dimensions on the two sides. The male bones exceed those of the female in both height and breadth, and especially in the former, but relatively to its height the female innominate is broader than that of the male, as a result of which the innominate height-breadth index is higher in the females.

LXVII.  MUNSEE: INNOMINATE BONES

Comparative data on the innominate bones are given in the next table. The Arkansas and Louisiana specimens, as well as those of other Indians, agree closely with those of the Munsee. The innominate of the whites, on the other hand, is both higher and especially broader, hence it shows a higher index in both sexes. Emmons, from his 217 Indian female pelves, obtained as an average height of the innominate 19.3 cm., and as the breadth 14.5 cm., with a mean index of 74.8. These results agree closely with those of the writer and strengthen the evidence that the innominate bones in the Indians average somewhat smaller in both dimensions, and are also somewhat narrower relatively than those in the whites.

LXVIII.  COMPARISON OF THE MUNSEE OSSA INNOMINATA
WITH THOSE OF OTHER INDIANS AND OF WHITES

LXVIII.  COMPARISON OF THE MUNSEE OSSA INNOMINATA
WITH THOSE OF OTHER INDIANS AND OF WHITES—Continued

THE PELVIS AS A WHOLE

The Munsee pelves available for measurement comprise those of six males and ten females. They are free from all deformation, and present the usual sexual characteristics with regard to massiveness, the flare of the ilia, the subpubic angle, and the width of the great sciatic notch.

The articulated pelves, with a slight space left for the pubic cartilage, gave measurements shown in the table below. The male pelvis, it is seen, is somewhat larger than the female in both of its mean external dimensions, and is also somewhat higher relatively, as a result of which it shows a higher height-breadth index.

LXIX.  MUNSEE: PELVIS AS A WHOLE

• LEGEND:
• A = Pelvic index[85]
• B = Diameter[86] antero-posterior (b)

The pelvic cavity at the superior strait or brim is more spacious, both antero-posteriorly and laterally, in the Munsee female than in the male, and it is also somewhat broader relatively to its depth, as a result of which it gives a somewhat lower depth-breadth index.

On comparison with the pelves of the mound-building Indians of the Arkansas and Louisiana mounds, those of the Southwest and Mexico, and those of United States whites, it is seen that the Munsee pelvis, as a whole, is of moderate dimensions, especially in its breadth, which is slightly smaller than that in any of the other groups in the males and in most of the females. Because of this fact, the height-breadth index of the pelvis in the Munsee is relatively high—higher than that of any of the other Indians. It is exceeded in this respect only by the pelvis of the white males.

An even more marked peculiarity of the Munsee pelvis applies to its inlet or brim. As will be seen by a glance at the figures, this is relatively narrow and deep in both sexes; the lateral diameter, with a single minor exception, is the lowest, and the diameter antero-posterior the highest of all the groups. As a result of this condition, the brim index of the Munsee in both males and females is exceptionally high.

LXX.  COMPARISON OF THE MUNSEE PELVIS WITH
THAT OF OTHER INDIANS AND OF WHITES

• LEGEND:
• A = Mean height of ossa innominata
• B = Greatest breadth of pelvis (between outer lips of crests)[87]
• C = Diameter lateral maximum of brim
• D = Diameter antero-posterior maximum of brim

The brim index in general shows unexpected irregularity from group to group and between the two sexes. In the Munsee and the southern Utah cliff-dwellers it is higher in the males; in the other Indians and in the whites it is higher in the females; and the range of its groupal as well as individual variation is considerable. As all the specimens were measured by the author with the same instruments, by the same method, and with equal care, the differences can not be attributed to error, hence the only reasonable conclusion is that even under normal conditions (for these series contain no deformed or pathological pelves) the absolute as well as the relative dimensions of the superior strait are capable of not a little fluctuation, attributable, it seems, in some measure at least, to an early unequal development of the soft parts both within and without the pelvic cavity.

In order to satisfy himself further on this point, the writer extracted a number of the larger series of pelvic measurements from Emmons’s data, and from the next table it will be seen that, although they relate to females only, the groupal variation is also marked. Yet these differences among the Indians rarely if ever fall below what may be considered normal limits, or such a limit as would in the female still permit of safe childbirth under other normal conditions. They are therefore what may be called infunctional or transfunctional fluctuations.

LXXI.  FEMALE INDIAN PELVIS:
SUPERIOR STRAIT[88]

Short and Other Bones

PATELLA

The patella, the largest of the sesamoid bones, offers three dimensions for measurements, namely, the maximum height, the maximum breadth, and the maximum thickness; and the mean of these diameters, the patellar module, is a convenient unit for comparing the size of the bone.

The 30 patellæ present in the Munsee collection give proportions which are tabulated below. The male bone is perceptibly larger in all dimensions than the female. There are but small differences as to side, and they are probably due in a measure, if not entirely, to the small number of specimens. The mean diameter or module is practically the same on both sides in both the male and the female. The breadth-height index averages slightly over 100 and offers nothing definitely distinctive either as to sex or to side. It varies in males from 91.7 to 107.4, in the females from 93.8 to 107.9.

LXXII.  MUNSEE: PATELLÆ

A comparison of the Munsee patella with that of whites shows that the latter is slightly larger in both sexes and on both sides; its relative proportions, however, are very much the same, except that the bone in white males on both sides appears to be relatively slightly higher than in the females, which, while also true of the Munsee on the right side, does not hold true for the left.

LXXIII.  PATELLÆ: MUNSEE AND WHITES

The Munsee patella, while in general slightly smaller than that of the whites, will be seen from the comparative data in the accompanying table to average somewhat larger than that of other Indians available for comparison. The larger size in all dimensions of the white man’s patella than that of the Indian is doubtless due to the greater muscularity of the white subjects from which the bones were derived and who belonged almost exclusively to the laboring classes.

Of the 30 Munsee patellæ, 15 show a moderate to well developed semilunar notch in the lateral border of the bone, for the vastus lateralis (pl. 28, b). The patellæ of female skeleton no. 285,311 are decidedly oblique, especially that on the left side; and the patellæ of female no. 285,321 show each an exceptionally long apex.

LXXIV.  THE MODULE OR MEAN DIAMETER OF THE
PATELLA IN THE MUNSEE AND OTHER GROUPS

BONES OF THE HAND

While the total number of bones of the hands in the Munsee material aggregate nearly 700, there are very few complete sets. It is nevertheless possible to ascertain that in general the hand of the Munsee was of moderate to medium development, and remarkedly normal in conformation. Among the females, some of the bones are quite small. The only anomaly worthy of mention is the presence of rudimentary hamuli on both unciforms in one of the male subjects (no. 285,308).

The proportional length of the hand can be judged from the measurements of the first metacarpal, and from the relation of this length to that of the humerus on the same side. The following table gives these dimensions. It is seen that the length of the first metacarpal in the male exceeds somewhat that of the female, and also that the length of the right bone exceeds slightly that of the left. The metacarpo-humeral index is somewhat higher on the right in the males, indicating a somewhat greater length of the hand on the right side in that sex. In the females the small number of specimens makes the result in this respect uncertain.

LXXV.  MUNSEE: FIRST METACARPAL