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ZJniver&y of Colorado FIVE FIGURESI n 1951 mechanical stress was emphasized by Thieme, in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, as a factor predisposing to fusion of the 5th lumbar vertebra to the sacrum. Statistics derived from measurements were presented to substantiate the opinion that the position of the sacral promontory above or below the arcuate line of the pelvis was related to the niechanics of weight-bearing, and that fusions of the lumbosacral articulation developed, presumably during postnatal life, in response to the stress of upright posture. Other observations and theories on lunibosacral fusion were not discusscld. This mechanical theory is so unrelated to many of the known facts that at first glance it would seem unnecessary to call them to attention. Since then, however, no critical comment has been aroused; the present brief review therefore appears to be in oyder.In the first place, there has been an unnecessary complication of the pathological with the morphological. Bony fusions a t articulations often a r e the result of acquired disease. Destructive processes such as tuberculosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and degenerative osteoarthritis may lead to bony ankylosis a t the lumbosacral articulation and at other joints, many of which are not weight-bearing and not subject to significant 363

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