A CLINICAL STUDY OP THE SKULL. 53 



becomes simple wheu it runs forward parallel to the temporal ridge 

 for a short distance before crossing it at the stephaniou. 



In an Esquimaux skull (No. 200, A. N. S.) the line of the tem- 

 poral fascia crosses an almost simple coronal suture 28'"™ from the 

 bregma. The stephanion is practically unseen. 



Kuppfer und Bessel Hagen, in 281 skulls from East Prussia, found 

 the coronal suture running along the temporal ridge a short dis- 

 tance before crossing it in 5 per cent, males and 6 per cent, females. 

 In the skulls of the insane these observers noted the disposition in 

 40 per cent. W. Sommer (Virchow's Archiv., vol. 90) in a similar 

 examination found this disposition in 17 per cent, of males and 7 

 per cent, of females. 



The lamhdo'idal suture^ like the coronal, is divided also into three 

 parts, which may be named, in a similar manner, the endal, mesal, 

 and ectal. Of these the ectal is the simplest in composition, and 

 the mesal the most denticulated. Wormian bones, when present, are 

 ■commonly situate in one or the other of these divisions, and not at 

 their lines of juncture. The divisions appear to be subject to 

 greater variation than in the cases of the sagittal and coronal su- 

 tures.'' 



W. Sommers (loc. cit.) found the lambdoidal suture conc.ive for- 

 ward in 90 per cent, of skulls of the insane, and 10 p-'r ceat. con- 

 vex. No mention is made of the eminence which I have named 

 meso-lambdoidal. It is fair to assume that it was present in those 



^ Broca practically makes similar subdivisions of the coronal and lamb- 

 doidal sutures in bis method of studying the relations which exist between 

 the cranium and the cerebrum. (See Eevue de Anthropologie, v. 1, p. 30.) 



■-' In No. 461, Clickitat (Columbia river) and 730 (Seminole) the lam- 

 bdoidal suture is completely occupied by a number of Wormian bones. 

 The divisions of the sutures, as above named, are lost, -ind the entire re- 

 gion presents an elliptical figure. In No. 208, Nisqually, A. N. S., the 

 suture is nearly straight and with few serrations. Out of 60 negro crania 

 examined the lambdoidal suture was straight, or nearly so, in 21, and arranged 

 as described above in 39. In Esquimaux crania the outer part of the lamb- 

 doidal is much smaller than is usually found in skulls of other races, and 

 the meso-lambdoidal is less convex forward. 



