C2 ELEMENTS OF MAMMALIAN ANATOMY. 



V ' 



In life, these foramina transmit the naso-palatine nerves. 

 In the Primates, the premaxillary is anchylosed to the 

 maxillary although it arises from a separate center of 

 ossification. 



The maxillary is a paired bone which meets its fellow 

 in the median line in the roof of the mouth. All its 

 articulations are visible externally except those with the 

 maxilloturbinal, ethmoid, and vomer. Five teeth, a 

 canine, three premolars, and a molar, are present in this 

 bone of the adult cat. The molar is wanting to the 

 young. The several portions of the bone are as follows: 

 the palatine plate, appearing in the roof of the mouth; 

 the nasal process, extending dorso-caudad to the frontal; 

 the malar process, extending ventrad to the orbit to 

 articulate with the malar bone; and the orbital plate, 

 which is the root of the malar process, forming a partial 

 floor to the orbital cavity. The large foramen leading 

 from the orbital cavity through the orbital plate is the 

 infraorbital foramen for the passage of the infraorbital 

 branch of the superior maxillary branch of the fifth 

 nerve. 



The palatine bone with its fellow helps to form the 

 roof of the oral cavity and the floor of the nasal cavity. 

 It is composed of two plates: one, vertical, forming the 

 lateral walls of the posterior nares and the cephalic part 

 of the walls of the median pterygoid fossa, and a portion 

 of the nasal wall of the orbital cavity; the other, hori- 

 zontal, forming part of the roof of the mouth. The ver- 

 tical plate is pierced by two foramina, the posterior pala- 

 tine and the sphenopalatine, each of which transmits a 

 palatine nerve and artery (Fig. 16). 



The vomer is a single narrow bone which in the nasal 

 cavity articulates dorsally with the mesethmoid and 

 ventrally with the palatines and the palatine plates of 



