Scientific American Supplement, No. 447, July 26, 1884Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 447, July 26, 1884
Various
Science -- Periodicals
Prof. Weber, of Bonn, quoted in Karl Vogt's "Vorlesungen ueber den
Mensohen," distinguishes four chief forms of the pelvis in mankind--the
oval in Aryans, the round among the Red Indians, the square in the
Mongols, and the wedge-shaped in the Negro. Examining this question
mechanically it would seem that the longer a race had remained in
an upright position the lower is the sacrum, and the greater is the
tendency to approximate to the larger lateral diameter of the European
female. The front to back diameter of the ape's pelvis is usually
greater than the measurement from side to side. A similar condition
affords the cuneiform, from which it may be inferred that the erect
position in the Negro has not been maintained so long as in the Mongol,
whose pelvis has assumed the quadrilateral shape owing to persistence
of spinal axis weight for a greater time. This pressure has finally
culminated in forcing the sacrum of the European nearer the pubes, with
consequent lateral expansion and contraction of the diameter from
front to back. From the marsupials to the lemurs the box-shaped pelvis
remains. With the wedge-shape occasioned in the lowest human types there
occurs a further remarkable phenomenon in the increased size of the
foetal head accompanying the contraction of the pelvic outlet. While the
marsupial head is about one-sixth the size of the narrowest part of the
bony parturient canal, the moment we pass to erect animals the greater
relative increase is there seen in cranial size, with a coexisting
decrease in the area of the outlet. This altered condition of things
has caused the death of millions of otherwise perfectly healthy and
well-formed human mothers and children. The palæontologist might tell us
if some such case of ischial approximation by natural mechanical causes
has not caused the probable extinction of whole genera of vertebrates.
"If we are to believe that for our original sin the pangs and labor
of childbirth were increased, and if we also believe in the
disproportionate contraction of the pelvic space being an efficient
cause of the same difficulties of parturition, the logical inference is
that man's original sin consisted in his getting upon his hind legs."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account