exhibit no difference in stature from the men of our own days; and we read that the Emperor Augustus was considered by the Romans as a person of middle stature, and his height is recorded as that of five feet, nine inches, of our measure.
In our general view of the human skeleton, two important problems present themselves for solution—the Age, and Sex, of the individual to whom it belonged. The skeleton of the fœtus, with which we shall commence our observations, is capable of furnishing more satisfactory data upon the subject of age than any examination of its softer textures, which are necessarily less evident and regular in their progress of developement. M. Beclard has deduced from his examination of above fifty fœtuses, the following calculations, which it may be important to record. After two months have elapsed from the period of conception, the skeleton is about 4 inches and 3 lines in length, that of the spine being 2 inches. At three months, the former is 6 inches, and the proportion of the spine as 2-2/3 to 6. At four months and a half, it is 9 inches, and the spine 4. At six months it is 12 inches, the spine being 5. At seven months and a half, it is 15 inches, the spine 6-1/3. At nine months, or at the period of birth, it is ordinarily from 16 to 20 inches in length; or, at a medium, 18 inches, and the spine is in the proportion of 7-3/4 to 18.
Ossification does not take place with equal rapidity in every bone; the ribs and clavicles are completely converted into bone long before birth, while the bones of the carpus, tarsus, and more particularly the patella, are not completed until some years afterwards; certain parts of bones are not formed until after birth, as the mastoid processes, and the pro-
