Observations on the skeleton of a Hottentot / by Jeffries Wyman.

  • Wyman, Jeffries, 1814-1874.
Date:
[1863?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the skeleton of a Hottentot / by Jeffries Wyman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    WyMAN (jF.) Fhom tiii: Proceedings of tiik Boston Society of Natural History, APRIL 2, 1802, and Df.ckmber 16, 1863. OBSERVATIONS ON THE SKELETON OF A HOTTENTOT. By JEFFRIES VVYMAN, MI). The subject was nearly adult, and came to his death by suicide. The chest was well formed and prominent; the shoulders were well made but not broad; the loins very hollow; the hips narrow: the thighs full and feminine, and the calves of the legs slender. There was no beard, no hair in the axilla? nor on the pubes. The ears were rather oval, small, and had only a small lobule. The webb between the fingers was more extensive than usual, and gradually increased in breadth from the index to the little finger, where it reached as far as the joint between the first and second phalanx. The epiphyses of the long bones were still unattached, but the wisdom-teeth were mature. Inches. Height of body <»5* Spread of arms from tip to tip of mid.lie fingers (id From top of head to top of trochanter 89J From top of trochanter to sole of foot 36 Breadth of shoulders 13 Breadth of waist '•'.■ Breadth of hipa through trochanter ll\ Length of arm from acromion 30JJ Length of thigh ls Length of leg from top of tibia to sole 18 Length of hand ~i Length of foot '•' The brain weighed .'] lbs. 2 oz. Av. which is about the average weight of an European brain. There are no weights of brains of Hottentots given in the tables of the comparative weights of the human brain. Dr. Morton gives the measurements of three Hotten- tot crania, the average capacity of which is 75 cubic inches. A cubic inch of brain is estimated to weigh 259.5 7 grains, and this mul- tipled by 75 would give as the whole weight about 2 lbs. 12 oz. Av. The individual was unusually tall for a Hottentot, and measured five feet and l\vv inches in height. A comparison of Hottentot and Bush- man skeletons, and easts of bodies, contained in the museums of Lon- don and Paris, give an average height of four feet and six inches. While the height of the body just equalled die distance between the tips of the fingers, the anus being outspread, the legs were dispropor-