BONES IDENTIFIED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 22, 26 January 1934, Page 8

BONES IDENTIFIED.

MANY FROM SKULL. SECOND DOCTOR'S EVIDENCE. OPINION AS TO BURNING. A comprehensive summary of his evidence was given by Dr. I'. I'. Lynch, pathologist to the Wellington Hospital, at tlie evening session of the hearing vesterdav. lie corroborated all that had been said by Dr. Walter Gilmour, pathologist to* the. Auckland Hospital, and identified 05 pieces of bone as being of human origin. Dr. Lynch said that of the 05 pieces of bone of human origin, 55 were from the skull, including 52 from the vault of the skull. There were two large pieces measuring 2 Jin by 2in. Several pieces measured more than an inch, and there were many pieces much smaller, some measuring not more than a quarter of an inch across. In addition there was the piece of bone from the temple bone 011 the left side, one from the occipital bone showing the depression for the large veins, one from the cheek bone, where it formed a margin of the orbit or eye socket. The pieces from the vault of the skull showed the characteristic structure of these skuli bones with a dense outer or inner layer with a spongy bone between. They also showed the line grooves produced by the arteries or the surface of the brain. They showed the wide grooves of the brains, and the piecc showed a pitted area. In their thickness and degree of curvature, the bones were typical of human skull bones. The portion from the temple bone showed the detailed structure of the internal ear with the organs of hearing and of balance. Other human bones were two pieces from the atlas, another from the spinal column in the dorsal region or that part of the spinal column from which the ribs sprang. There were portions from the right elbow joint, in which the outer part of the joint .was represented. This was formed by the outer part of the humerus and the head of the radius. There was also a portion of the femur or fibre. The piece of heel bone was characteristic because it showed the buttress or support for the bone above it, and under this support one of the tendons of the big toe passes ill a groove. Age and Sex. Mr. Meredith: Can you give any indication of age or sex of the individual? —I would say that the ridges of .the bones corresponding to the muscle attachment are so strongly marked as | to suggest these are male bones. The fact that the growth is complete in the lower end of the humerus and the head of the radius and the collar-bone place the age of the individual at not less than 25. One of the skull bones shows a fairly deep pit. This would suggest that the individual was at least at middle life. A further indication that the bones were male bones was the fact that some of the fragments of long bone showed a heavy structure, in that the cortcx 01 shell that enclosed the marrow was thick and strong. What is your opinion as to the individual to whom these bones belong?— They are the bones of a male adult or strongly made, muscular female adult. I thin': the presence of strongly marked muscular attachments would be very unusual in a female. A Fresh Body? Can you say how long since the bones were burnt? —Many of the bones show a dark, charred, bubbly material which indicates that there was tlesh 011 the bone's when burned. When bare bones are burned, the surface of the burnt bones is quite smooth. What inference did' you draw from that?— That the bones were not those of a bare skeleton, that it was either a fresh body that was burned, or a body, or parts of a body, that still had flesh 011 them. Can you say how long ago the bones were burnt?—l think they were recently burnt, because the fractured edges were clean cut and sharp. There is 110 dirt ground into the bones, and they showed 110 signs of weathering. By recent, I mean a matter of months. I would place the time that has elapsed since the bones were burnt as being under a year.