THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HUMAN ANOMALIES. 723 



tive anatomy, a science which is as yet very incomplete, but which is 

 rapidly enlarging its boundaries. Some animals we know by their 

 fossil remains, and in these merely their bony structure can be stud- 

 ied ; all the soft parts are, of course, lost forever, and can only be ap- 

 proximately restored by our knowledge of allied existing types of the 

 same animals. With these few preliminary remarks I shall proceed 

 to describe, as simply as possible, some anomalies I have myself met 

 with, and the significance of which I shall endeavor to make clear. 



Osseous System. — In a skull in my possession, whose lowness of 

 type is manifested by the narrow forehead, prominent supraorbital 

 ridges, wide arches of bone to inclose the large masticatory muscles, 

 the acute facial angle, prognathous jaws, and well-marked bony promi- 

 nences, are two remarkable variations : 



1. An Epihyal Bone. — In all human beings there is near the ear- 

 opening a bony spine, generally about half an inch long, and which is 

 called, from its resemblance to an ancient pen, the styloid process ; 

 the lower end of this is connected with the hyoid or tongue bone of 

 the neck by a fibrous cord. Now, in this skull, the styloid process is 

 not connected with the little tongue-bone by a fibrous cord, but the 



Fig. 1. 



