A CLINICAL STUDY OF THE SKULL. 35 



The high inclination of the basilar process would be at first sight 

 a condition which would correlate with other cranial structures, but 

 I have not found this to be the case in the living subject or in the 

 crania which I have examined. It is true that in some crania the 

 high angulation is associated with an inclined vomer, as seen at its 

 posterior free border, and a high palatal crest. At one time I was 

 prepared to assert that the high angle of union of the basilar process 

 with the sphenoid bone and the vomer was associated with certain 

 changes in the nasal chambers and in the proportions of the face, 

 but examinations of more extensive series of specimens than those 

 at ray command will be required before any definite conclusions 

 on this subject can be secured. To be enabled to harmonize the 

 shape of the naso-pharyux with a series of fixed landmarks of the 

 nose and face would be a most valuable desideratum and one to 

 which I respectfully invite the attention of observers.^ (See re- 

 marks at the end of the lecture on clinical measurements.) 



The existence of a high angle with a large conceptaculum cere- 

 belli is sometimes noted, as well as a low angle with a small degree 

 of convexity or descent of the conceptaculum f yet exceptions to the 

 association can be found in sufiicieut numbers to forbid a correla- 

 tion being established between the two. 



In the skull of Sandwich Islanders and some Esquimaux the 

 basio-cranial angle is low. Since the human foetus at term exhibits 

 uniformly a low angle or none, the adult crania which retain it may 

 be said to be retarded in this particular. 



Lissauer^ has delineated and described the angle created by the 

 union of the basilar process ai)id the vomer. In a Tartar this angle 



^ Dr. Jno. M. Mackenzie (Arch, of Laryngologj'-, iv, 164) describes ex- 

 amples of obliquity of the plane of the posterior nares. No mention is mode 

 of its correlation with peculiarities of oceipito-sphenoidal union. 



* The funnel-shaped chamber which lies within the embrace of the con- 

 ceptaculum and is defined anteriorly bj'' a basilar process has been made the 

 subject of special study by Lissauer. (Archiv. fiir Anthropologie, 1885, 16, 

 Figs. 4 and 5.) 



' Log. cit. XV, Fig. 9, p. 18. 



