A laboratory manual of anthropometry / by Harris H. Wilder.

  • Wilder, Harris Hawthorne, 1864-1928.
Date:
[1920], ©1920
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A laboratory manual of anthropometry / by Harris H. Wilder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    96/216 (page 80)
    Very little has as yet been done with the anthropometry of the ribs and sternum. The curvature of the ribs, connected as it is with the capacity of the chest and the relative lung capacity, is in part an individual char- acter, but is undoubtedly in part also racial. This character has been studied thus far mainly in the living by means of thoracic measurements. A comparison of the ribs and sternum of such prehistoric human species as Homo neandertalensis, with the same parts of modern man should show us along what lines to look for racial differences in the bones them- selves, and in this connection it is interesting to note that the ribs of this early species were less rounded in curvature than in modern man, indicating a cylindrical, rather than a flat, chest. This man was rather short in stature (1550-1650 mm.), with an enormously large head set well forward upon a short, massive neck. The thorax was cylindrical and very capacious, and the intercostal muscles were extremely well- developed. The ribs were themselves rather cylindrical than flat, giving a distinct triangular cross-section.* III. SHOULDER-GIRDLE Scapula % I. LINEAR MEASUREMENTS 1. Maximum length (morphologically the breadth^) [CD]; the distance between the most projecting points of the anterior (superior) and poste- rior (inferior) angles. 2. Maximum breadth (morphologically the lengthf) [BK]; from the middle of the lower border of the articular surface of the glenoid fossa to the terminus of the spinal axis [No. 3] upon the vertebral border. 3. Spinal axis [BA]; from the center of the glenoid fossa to the point where the prolonged lower edge of the spine intersects the vertebral border. 4. Length of the spine [BE]; from the last described point [B], to the most distant point upon the acromion process. 5. Length of the supra-spinous line [BC]; from the point [B] to the anterior angle. *Boule: L’homme fossile de la Chapelleaux-Saints; Annales de Paleontologie, T. VI, 1911; pp. 113-115. Schwalbe, G.: Kritische Besprechung von Boule’s Werk; L’homme fossile, etc., mit eigenen Untersuchungen. Zeitschr. fur Morphol. und Anthropol., Bd. XVI, 1914; p. 565+. f The scapula of man, and to a lesser degree that of the other Primates, is spread out antero-posteriorly far in excess of that of most other mammals, mainly because of the excessive lengthening in this direction of the infra-spinous portion of the blade. If comparison be made with other scapulae, e.g., cat, horse, rat, which show the more usual shape it is at once apparent that the length runs in the same direction as the spine, and the breadth at right angles to it, across both fossae.