This is one of the most interesting bones of the body, and although it
has been reported on by a number of observers, it presents a variety
of features that deserve further study. It is a bone which in all
particulars shows great individual variation, but on close scrutiny it
is found that these variations differ more or less from group to group
and are therefore of anthropological importance, and that they are
subject to certain laws which evidently are universal to human kind.
In collections derived from graves, such as those of the Munsee, the
scapulæ, on account of their frailness, are often damaged, so that
relatively few specimens are available for examination. There are
nevertheless in the Munsee collection five male and nine female bones
in fair condition, and their study gives some satisfactory results. To
contrast these results properly the writer presents in the following
table data not only of the Munsee, but also those on several other
Indian groups as well as on the whites and the United States negroes.