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LECTURE VII. 



ON THE VERTEBRATE SKULL. 



THE STRUCTURE OF THE HUMAN SKULL. 



The human skull is by no means one of the simplest examples 

 of a vertebrate cranium which can be studied, nor is the com- 

 prehension of its structure easy ; but, as all vertebrate anatomy 

 has started from the investigation of human organization, and 

 the terms osteologists use are derived from those which were 

 originally applied to definite parts of the organism of man, a 

 careful investigation of the fundamental structure of man's 

 skull, becomes an indispensable preliminary to the establish- 

 ment of anything like a sound comparative nomenclature, or 

 general theory, of the Vertebrate Skull. 



Viewed from without (Fig. 47), the human cranium exhibits 

 a multiplicity of bones, united together, partly by sutures, 

 partly by anchylosis, partly by moveable joints, and partly by 

 ligaments ; and the study of the boundaries and connections of 

 these bones, apart from any reference to the plan discoverable 

 in the whole construction, is the subject of the topographical 

 anatomist, to whom one constantly observed fact of structure is 

 as valuable as another. The morphologist, on the other hand, 

 without casting the slightest slur upon the valuable labours of 

 the topographer, endeavours to seek out those connections and 

 arrangements of the bony elements of the complex whole which 

 are fundamental, and underlie all the rest ; and which are to 

 the craniologist that which physical geography is to the student 

 of geographical science. 



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