LECTURE X. 



Delivered May 29, 1889. 



A CLINICAL STUDY OF THE SKULL. 



By HARRISON ALLEN, 31. D. 



THE MALAR BONE AND THE ZYGOMATIC ARCH. 



The malar bone is one of the most conspicuous of the superficial 

 characters of the face. At the outer and lower margin of the orbit 

 the external surface, as well as the posterior and zygomatic borders, 

 can be separately distinguished. The bone as it enters into the 

 composition of the lower border of the orbit is discussed elsewhere. 



The consideration of the external surface will be undertaken at 

 this place. The chief points to consider are, first, its inequality, 

 and, second, its obliquity. 



1st. The inequality of the surface is simple in character. It is 

 comprised in the lower part, this being at times raised so as to form 

 a rounded projected eminence. It is less pronounced in the negro 

 than in the Caucasian, and is entirely absent in the child. When 

 the cranium is examined the inequality is seen to answer to distinct 

 differences in texture of the superficies — differences varying in indi- 

 viduals, but never entirely absent. 



Throughout the series of examinations made with this object in 

 view — vt^., of determining the variations in the upper and lower part 

 of the bone — it was found that from simple differences in superficial 

 texture it was an easy transition to the detection of differences in the 

 deeper texture of the two parts ; that thence to attempts at the for- 



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