Paper, 'The spinal curvature in an Aboriginal Australian' by Daniel John Cunningham

Description

Cunningham writes: 'When the lumbar vertebrae of a native [sic] Australian, or of several other low races of man [sic], are placed in apposition, the centra form a curved column, with the concavity directed to the front. In other words, the bodies of the lumbar vertebrae are not moulded as in the European, but are wedge-shaped in the opposite direction.' Cunningham goes on to compare the spines of an unnamed 16-year-old Aboriginal girl, an unnamed 35-year-old Irish woman and a 'young female' chimpanzee. The spine of the Aboriginal girl was sent to Cunningham 'through the kindness of' Thomas Peter Anderson Stuart of Sydney University.

Annotations in pencil and ink. Includes four pages of diagrams of spinal curvature.

Subject: Anatomy / Physiology / Anthropology

Received 14 January 1889. Read 24 January 1889. Communicated by William Turner.

A version of this paper was published in volume 45 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'The spinal curvature in an aboriginal Australian'.

Reference number

PP/13/31

Earliest possible date

1889

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil on paper

Page extent

36 pages

Format

Manuscript
Diagram