Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fully's Anatomical Method
Dwight's anatomical method was extremely laborious, so
Fully (1956)
decided to stream-
line the process.
Fully (1956)
was given the task of identifying French dead from German
WWII era concentration camps in Austria. He developed his own anatomical method on
a subset of 102 individuals with identification tags from the total 3165 individuals in his
sample. The difference between his method and Dwight's method is that he used the indi-
vidual bone measurements and not the length of the fully assembled skeleton. The steps
of Fully's Anatomical Method are found in
Box 6.4
.
Fully came up with a single correction factor for all the soft tissue, depending on whether
the individual was short, medium height, or tall. If the estimated stature is less than 153.5 cm,
then 10 cm are added. If the estimated stature is between 153.6 and 165.4 cm, then 10.5 cm are
added. Further, 11.5 cm are added to account for soft tissue thickness for any stature over
165.5 cm. Fully also stated that his method was specific to European populations (
Fully, 1956
).
Lundy (1988)
conducted a validation study of stature estimation methods using three
known European American soldiers killed during the VietnamWar. The study tested the reli-
ability of the Fully method against Trotter and Gleser's formulae using the femur and tibia
BOX 6.3
DWIGHT'S ANATOMICAL METHOD
1. Place a metric scale along the length of the
table.
2. Articulate the pelvis to L5 with the
anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) in the
same horizontal plane as the pubic
symphysis.
3. Check the accuracy of the spine segments
with proportions of the cervical, thoracic,
and lumbar vertebrae.
4. Place the femoral head in the acetabulum
on one side with the distal condyles
perpendicular to the table length.
5. Add the tibia with a space of 6 mm
between it and the femur.
6. Add the talus with a space of 3 mm from
the tibia and another 3 cm from the
calcaneus.
7. Place the skull on clay 3 mm from the
atlas.
8. Add 6 mm to account for scalp thickness.
9. In total, add 32 mm for soft tissue, which
is similar to the 35 mm added for soft
tissue as suggested by Topinard (1885).
BOX 6.4
FULLY'S ANATOMICAL METHOD
1. Skull height from basion to bregma
2. Vertebral body height C2
e
L5, S1
3. Femur physiological length
4. Tibia physiological length (with
malleolus)
5. Talocalcaneal articulated height
6. Calculate skeletal stature
7. Add soft tissue correction factor of 10,
10.5 or 11.5 cm, depending on skeletal
stature estimate.
