The results of the several measurements obtained on the Munsee tibiæ
are shown below.
The mean length of the bone, taking the two sides together, is 38.5
cm. in the males and 35.3 cm. in the females. The length of the female
bone stands to that of the male as 91.7 to 100, which is lower than was
obtained on the tibiæ from Louisiana, where the proportion was 93.7,
or than that prevailing among whites, where it is even slightly higher
(94.6 in miscellaneous New York whites). The Munsee female tibiæ are
therefore relatively somewhat short, paralleling to some extent what
was found with reference to the radius. Lesser differences of the same
nature is found in probably all larger racial groups. Why the feature
should be more pronounced in the Munsee than in other Indians is
difficult of explanation; but, as will be seen later, this is not the
only peculiarity of the female Munsee tibiæ.
LI. MUNSEE: TIBIÆ
LEGEND:
A = Length[59]
B = Diameter[60] antero-posterior at middle (a)
C = Diameter[61] lateral at middle (b)
D = Index of shaft at middle (b×100/a)
E = Tibio-femoral index (T×100/F)
MALES
----------+---------------------------------------------------------
| Right
+------+--------+------+-------+-------+-----+------+-----
|Number| |Number| | | |Number|
| of | (A) | of | (B) | (C) | (D) | of | (E)
|bones | |cases | | | |cases |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
----------+------+--------+------+-------+-------+-----+------+-----
Average: | | _cm._ | | _cm._ | _cm._ | | |
Paired | (11) | 38.3 | (14) | 3.28 | 2.14 |65.4 | (19) |84.4
Total | | | | | | | |
present| (12) | 38.5 | (14) | 3.28 | 2.14 |65.4 | (10) |84.6
Minimum | (12) | 36 | (14) | 3.05 | 1.95 |56.3 | (10) |81.1
Maximum | (12) | 40.5 | (14) | 3.55 | 2.4 |69.7 | (10) |86.9
+------+--------+------+-------+-------+-----+------+-----
| Left
+------+--------+------+-------+-------+-----+------+-----
Average: | | | | | | | |
Paired | (11) | 38.6 | (14) | 3.25 | 2.16 |66.6 | (9) |84.5
Total | | | | | | | |
present| (12) | 38.8 | (15) | 3.23 | 2.16 |67.1 | (11) |84.9
Minimum | (12) | 36.7 | (15) | 2.8 | 1.95 |54.9 | (11) |79.4
Maximum | (12) | 40.9 | (15) | 3.55 | 2.4 |80.4 | (11) |90.0
----------+------+--------+------+-------+-------+-----+------+-----
FEMALES
----------+---------------------------------------------------------
| Right
----------+------+--------+------+-------+------+------+------+-----
Average: | | _cm._ | | _cm._ | _cm._| | |
Paired | (13) | 35.3 | (13) | 2.6 | 1.98 | 76.1 | (12) | 83.7
Total | | | | | | | |
present| (14) | 35.3 | (13) | 2.6 | 1.98 | 76.1 | (12) | 83.7
Minimum | (13) | 32.4 | (13) | 2.25 | 1.65 | 70.2 | (12) | 81.4
Maximum | (13) | 37.1 | (13) | 2.85 | 2.3 | 86.7 | (12) | 87.7
+------+--------+------+-------+------+------+------+-----
| Left
+------+--------+------+-------+------+------+------+-----
Average: | | | | | | | |
Paired | (13) | 35.2 | (13) | 2.6 | 1.93 | 74.5 | (12) | 83.7
Total | | | | | | | |
present| (14) | 35.2 | (14) | 2.64 | 1.96 | 74.6 | (12) | 83.7
Minimum | (14) | 32.4 | (14) | 2.25 | 1.5 | 58.8 | (12) | 81.5
Maximum | (14) | 36.7 | (14) | 2.8 | 2.35 | 82.2 | (12) | 86.1
----------+------+--------+------+-------+------+------+------+-----
[59] On Broca’s _planche ostéometrique_, with the spine in the opening
of the vertical portion of the instrument and the condyles applied to
the board on both sides of the opening, the rest of the bone lying
immobile on the horizontal board.
[60] Maximum.
[61] With anterior border of the bone midway between the two branches
of the compass that are applied to the sides of the bone.
As to the two sides, the Munsee left tibia averages somewhat longer in
the males than the right, which on the whole in slight measure is also
the condition among the whites, but to which individual and even group
exceptions are not infrequent. In the Munsee females, on the other
hand, the average length of the left tibia is slightly less (by 1 mm.)
than that of the right.
The percental relation of the length of the tibia with the bicondylar
length of the femur, or the _tibio-femoral index_, averages in whites
approximately 82 in the males and slightly less in the females. In
the Munsee it is somewhat more elevated in both sexes. As in the
whites and other racial groups, a moderate excess of the male over the
female index is present on both sides, indicating the slightly greater
relative shortness of the female leg bones aforementioned. Judging from
the available data on the tibio-femoral index among other Indians,[62]
that in the Munsee comes very near to the average of the race.
[62] Compare S. Bello y Rodriguez, _Le fémur et le tibia, chez l’homme
et les anthropoìdes, Thèse_, Paris, 1909, p. 109.
The strength of the Munsee tibia (and the same is probably true of
many other Indian tribes) is surprising, being nearer that of the
whites than is the case with either the humerus or the femur. The
antero-posterior diameter of the Indian tibia is, in fact, in almost
all the Indian groups somewhat greater than in the whites. The index
of the shaft is invariably and quite perceptibly lower in the Indians
than in the whites, excepting the Munsee females, in whom, curiously
enough, the index is relatively quite high, exceeding both that of
the other Indians available for comparison and of the whites. No
satisfactory explanation of this and other exceptional features of
the Munsee tibia can be given. The condition can scarcely be regarded
as accidental, for on examining the individual shaft indexes it is
observed that in but one of the female bones is the index below 60,
giving thus a pronounced platycnemy; in five it is between 60 and 70;
in ten between 70 and 80, and in no fewer than eleven it rises to 80
or over. Among the twenty-nine male Munsee tibiæ there is but one that
gives a shaft index of slightly above 80.
LII. MEAN DIMENSIONS OF THE TIBIA (THE TWO SIDES BEING TAKEN TOGETHER)
IN THE MUNSEE AND OTHER INDIANS, AND IN WHITES
LEGEND:
A = Mean diameter antero-posterior at middle[63] (a)
B = Mean diameter lateral at middle[64] (b)
C = Module[65]
D = Index of shaft at middle (b × 100)/a
E = Tibio-femoral index (T × 100)/F
------------------+------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------
|Length| (A) | (B) | (C) | (D) | (E)
------------------+------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------
Males: | _cm._| _cm._ | _cm._ | _cm._ | |
Munsee | 38.45| 3.27 | 2.15 | 2.71 | 66 | 84.45
Arkansas | 38.4 | 3.35 | 2.18 | 2.76 | 65.15 | 82.35
Louisiana | 37.1 | 3.3 | 2.2 | 2.75 | 68.47 | 84.25
Whites | | | | | |
(miscellaneous)| 36.5 | 3.14 | 2.22 | 2.68 | 71.1 | 82
Females: | | | | | |
Munsee | 35.25| 2.6 | 1.96 | 2.28 | 75.3 | 83.7
Arkansas | 33.15| 2.8 | 1.98 | 2.39 | 69.25 | 82.35
Louisiana | 34.75| 2.9 | 1.88 | 2.39 | 64.2 | 83.9
Whites | | | | | |
(miscellaneous)| 34.56| 2.65 | 1.96 | 2.3 | 71.9 | 81.6
------------------+------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------
The Munsee tibiæ, barring a few moderate inflammatory lesions referred
to in another section, are normal throughout and free from anomalies.
The inclination of the head is in no case especially marked.
As to the shape of the shaft at middle, conditions were found as
follows: