Wyman.] 



456 



[AprU 15, 



II. From the Warren Museum in the Harvard IMedical College, 

 is also from a somewhat aged subject. The sagittal suture is wholly, 

 and the coronal, lambdoidal and squamous sutures are partially closed. 

 The index of the foramen magnum is 43.9, showing that the head has 

 been lengthened forwards more than 

 backwards. A third articular sur- 

 face exists on the middle of the 

 fore-edge of the foramen magnum, 

 and corresponds with the apex of 

 the odontoid process of the axis. It 

 is a smooth, oval depression, with 

 slightly raised borders, and has the 

 appeai-ance of having been covered 

 with an articular cartilage; it is sujj- 

 ported by a very slight elevation of 

 bone, as in the cases of condi/lus 

 tertiun described by Dr. Halbertsma. 

 When vicAved from behind, as in . 



Fig. 2, this cranium is remarkable 



for the manner in which the lateral walls slope towards the vertex. 



III. From the Anatomical Museum at Cambi'idge. This cranium 

 belonged to a dissecting room subject, is that of an adult, is of a 

 rough texture, but its deformity is not strongly marked. The sagittal 

 suture is wholly closed, as is also the left squamosal, and, in addition, 

 the spheno-parietal, the spheno-frontal, the lelt spheno-squamosal, 

 and the lower ends of the coronal. The others ai-e open, though 

 showing a tendency to close. When viewed from the base, the cra- 

 nium is slightly curved, having a concavity on the left side, that is, to 

 the side where the sutures are most extensively closed. 



IV. Cranium of a child from the Spurzheim collection. The age 

 is jn'esumed to be somewhat under seven years, but the process of 

 dentition lias gone on somewhat irregularly, and leaves the precise 

 age doubtful. The sagittal suture is closed, except for about three- 

 fourths of an inch at the fore part; the frontal suture is open at its 

 hinder part to about the same extent. In the line of the union of 

 the pai-ietal bones is a slight ridge, and on each side of this a series 

 of vascular openings and channels, which have a radiated arrange- 

 ment, and which give an apjiearance as if the two parietals had been 

 ossified from a single centre. AU of the other sutures were open. 

 The index of the foramen magnum is 51.8, which shows that the he<ad 

 has been lengthened backwards more than forwards. The side walls 

 of this skull slope towards the vertex, but to a less degree than in the 

 preceding specimen. 



