Chapter XLV: Munsee and Other Femora: Relations Between the Bicondylar

AND MAXIMUM LENGTH OF THE BONES

----------------------+---------+-------+---------+---------+--------
| | | United | |
| Munsee | Other | States | Italians|American
| |Indians| whites | | negro
+----+----+---+---+----+----+----+----+----+---
| M.| F. | M.| F.| M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F.
----------------------+----+----+---+---+----+----+----+----+----+---
Number of paired bones| 12| 12| 55| 22|100 | 50| 31| 8| 12|8
Average excess of the | | | | | | | | | |
maximum over the | | | | | | | | | |
bicondylar length: | | | | | | | | | |
Right, cm. |5.35|5.6 |4 |3.8|3.05|3.78|3 |2.6 |4 |3.2
Left, cm. |4.2 |6.45|4.2|3.2|2.55|3.8 |2.58|2.1 |3.25|3.5
----------------------+----+----+---+---+----+----+----+----+----+---

The difference between the maximum and bicondylar length of the femur in some racial groups averages greater in the females than in the males, while in others the condition is reversed. Among the Munsee the females show the greater difference (6 mm. to slightly less than 5 mm. in the males); but this peculiarity is not shared by other Indian groups. A condition similar to that of the Munsee exists in this respect among the United States whites, where the difference between the two lengths averages 3.8 mm. in the females and only 2.8 mm. in the males; while among the Italians, and to a less extent the negroes, the disproportion is greater in the males (Italians: m. 2.8, f. 2.35 mm; negroes: m. 3.6, f. 3.35 mm.). The excess of the difference in males in these groups was unexpected, the usual impression being that the axis of the female femur is generally more oblique than that of the male; and the more oblique the axis, the greater should be the difference between the bicondylar and maximum length of the bone.

As to the two sides of the body, in the majority of the groups whose femora were studied, greater average differences were found between the two lengths of the bone on the right than on the left; in a few groups, however, such as the Munsee, the United States whites, and the United States negro females, the condition was reversed.

These interesting conditions and exceptions make it probable that an extended special study of the relations of the two femoral lengths would be well repaid by the results.

The relation in bicondylar length of the Munsee female to the male femora is as 92.7 to 100, and practically the same result was obtained in other Indians (92.65 to 100). In United States whites the proportion is as 93 to 100; in American negroes, as 93.1 to 100. These are striking similarities in people so far apart racially.

HUMERO-FEMORAL INDEX

The percental relation in length of the femur to the humerus in the Munsee, the humero-femoral index

maximum length of humerus × 100
———————————————————————————————,
bicondylar length of femur

approximates in both sexes 72, which is very near the average in human races generally. The similarity of this important relation in different racial groups, as may be seen from the measurements by the writer in the next table, is quite remarkable.

As a rule the humero-femoral index is in both sexes slightly higher on the right than on the left side, and the Munsee form no exception in this particular. As to sex, while in all branches of the whites, as well as in the United States negroes, the male index on both sides is slightly higher, in the Munsee, as well as in other Indians, the index in the male is slightly lower than that in the female. These features are all connected, of course, with the peculiarities of the length of the Indian humerus as well as the femur, outlined in other chapters.