B). By Means of the Pelvis (Itself), Causing a Reduction of the Body’s Weight Which Must Be Transferred to the Lower Extremities
1). The pelvis is required to expand towards the transverse diameter, because to support ordinary body weight with a lesser support of the lower extremities, the transverse diameter of the pelvis must be much wider than the transverse diameter of the spinal column. For example, when the transverse of the pelvis is three times larger than the transverse of the spinal column, the lower extremities can support the body’s weight with a supporting strength of only one-third of the ordinary body weight. (In other words, if the transverse of the pelvis is three times larger than the transverse of the spinal column, two-thirds of the body’s weight is supported by the pelvis and the rest by the legs.)
2). The height of the pelvis requires that it be low. When a [flat] dimension which supports a body’s weight becomes larger, the pressure received by its parts becomes less. Because of this, the venter of the ilium does not assume an almost vertical position, but rather one which is almost horizontal. Consequently the height of the pelvis must be reduced.
1). As a result of footbinding, when the woman stands erect there is a noticeable curve of her waist. My conjecture is that this [curvature] is principally caused by the [slanting of] the lumbar vertebrae, and that the jutting out of the tip of the sacrum is relatively moderate. Mr. Habeler, while doing a measurement of pelves in Peking, proved that the entrance to the pelvis is not heart shaped but almost round, and that its vertical and transverse diameters are almost identical in length. This [the round shape of the entrance to the pelvis of the foot-bound woman] can also be presumed by comparing the lengths of the outer symphysis lines between the natural-footed and footbound Taiwanese women whom I measured. The comparison of the measurement of outer symphysis lines is as follows:
Footbound Women 18.9 cm
Natural-Footed Women 19.3 cm
2). The Enlargement of the Transverse Diameter
There are two ways in which to enlarge the transverse diameter of the pelvis. One is to elongate the front half of the pelvis’s transverse diameter; the other is to elongate the width diameter of the sacrum. Now do the pelves of footbound women really form an enlargement of the transverse diameter? When these are inspected one by one, the elongation of the front [upper] half of the pelvis to the transverse diameter can be imagined to have been produced through a large angle of the pubic arch. According to Habeler, the angle of the pubic arch among the Chinese is much greater than that of the Japanese and the Ainu.
Next, concerning the sacrum bone, Habeler states that a comparison of the width and length of the Chinese sacrum shows that it is larger than its counterpart among the Japanese and Ainu. Has the pelvis formed like this really been elongated along its transversal? Habeler has also stated that the pelvis of the Chinese, as compared with the Japanese and Ainu, is the smallest, while the length of the outer symphysis line is not much different from the other two races. The distance between the [left and right] front side iliac spines is a little short. However, the distance between the [left and right] back side iliac spines is remarkably large, while the distance between the [left and right] acetabulums is not much different [as compared with the Japanese and Ainu].
Therefore the transverse diameter of the pelvis, concerning both actual number as well as comparative examples, offers not the slightest proof that the pelvis of the bound-foot woman becomes especially enlarged. One becomes aware instead that the transverse of the pelvis of a woman with bound feet becomes reduced as compared with that of her natural-foot counterpart. I assume that these matters should subsequently be solved by securing a still larger amount of material.
3). The Height of the Pelvis
According to Habeler, the height of the [pelvis] of the Chinese woman is only slightly more than the Japanese and the Ainu at the pubic symphysis [union of the two pubic bones at the lower interior part of the abdomen], but the heights of other parts [of the pelvis], especially the overall heights, are noticeably lower than those of the Japanese and Ainu.
