A CLINICAL STUDY OF THE SKULL. 61 



Linear measurements taken in the median line from the glabella 

 to the inion will represent more nearly the curve of the left side of 

 the calvarium thau do those taken on the right. The measurements 

 last named may differ so widely from those of the left side as to 

 throw the point given by Thrane for the fissure of Rolando on the 

 right side as much as one-half inch out from that of the left. 



The vertex in the space included at the sides by the temporal 

 ridges — at the front by the corona and at the back by the 

 lambda — is subject to local atrophic changes. Rounded depressions 

 measuring one or two centimetres across and one to three millime- 

 tres in depth are scattered irregularly over the surface. There is 

 no diseased action elsewhere in the skulls showing this peculiarity, 

 and no evidence can be presented that the depressions themselves 

 are of morbid origin. They have been seen always in crania show- 

 ing early signs of advanced age, and some of them are found in dis- 

 tinctly senile skulls. Examples are seen in several of the skulls of 

 Arabs (A. N. S.). A Narragansett ^ and a Chinese skull '^ also ex- 

 hibit the depression. 



In a cranium in the possession of the Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ences the vertex has been mapped out and the localities named after 

 the phrenological method of Gall and Spurzheim. It is interesting 

 to note that a number of the enclosures which constitute what is 

 known in the language of phrenology as the " organs " answer 

 accurately to the eminences which I have named as above. Thus 

 the para-tuberal eminence becomes the organ of " ambition," the 

 raeso-lambdoidal eminence that of " friendship," etc. The "organ" 

 of " philoprogenitiveness" appears to be always well developed in 

 females, and frequently so in males. I find no reference to 

 this association of parts in the writings of phrenology, and I am, 

 therefore, led to infer that it is a co-incidence only that the emi- 

 nences which I have named happened also to have attracted the 

 attention of the phrenologist. 



iNo. 951. 2 No. 94. 



