DE. J. THTJENAM ON SYNOSTOSIS OP THE CRANIAL BONES. 251 



of synostotic parietals in Africans is very remarkable, and few collec- 

 tions are witliout one or more examples. In passing, for another 

 purpose, through the Gallery of Anthropology (Salle Cuvier), in the 

 Museum of Natural History of Paris, my eye was attracted by a 

 series of skulls of Hottentots, five or six in number, one of which I 

 found presented no trace whatever of a sagittal suture. Adjoining 

 these, was another small series of skulls of Namaquas, one of which 

 presented the same form of synostosis. In the series of twenty 

 skulls brought from Kilwa in East Africa by Captain Burton, now 

 in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, three exhibit obliteration 

 of the sagittal, one of them (No. 5378 P) in a most complete form.* 

 In a series of twelve Dahoman skulls from West Africa, recently 

 added to the collection of Dr. Barnard Davis, two have the sagittal 

 suture completely obliterated and the form elongate — "67, '69. The 

 former (No. 1229) is that of a man, the other (No. 1234) that of a 

 woman, each of about 30 years of age. 



The most remarkable instance, however, is that aftorded by the 

 capture of two schooners, laden with about 100 slaves from Cape 

 Lopez, Congo, on the west coast ; who were carried to Fernando Po, 

 where several of them died. Four were examined after death, and in 

 each instance, " the sagittal suture was wanting ;" — the conclusion 

 adopted by the navy surgeons, Mr. Ballard and Mr. "Wallace, being 

 " that in this race of blacks such is the usual cranial conformation.'* 

 A different view was taken by the late Dr. Graves, who regarded 

 " the obliteration of the sagittal suture as a mere accidental variety ;" 

 and by Dr. Prichard, who added his belief, " that the want of this 

 suture is not cbaracteristic of any particular race."t Our additional 

 knowledge of this subject appears to justify some modification in the 



* They are the skulls numbered 5378 P, S, and U. The first, that of a man, 

 is a good example of synostotic dolichocephalus or of the sxibscaphoid skull. The 

 second is that of a girl of about seven years, and is important, as showing the order 

 in which the different portions of the sagittal undergo infantile obliteration. This 

 would seem to have commenced in the 4th, or inter-foraminal division of Welcker, 

 and to have extended on the one hand to the 5th, and on the other to the 3rd, and 

 so to the 2nd. The 1st, or coronal division, with a small part of the 2nd, remains 

 open. In the skull U, that of a managed about 35, the anterior division like- 

 wise remains open. I am infomicd by Captain Burton, that the whole of these 

 skulls are those of persons who died of cholera, chiefly sla^-es of the Wahiou 

 tribe, — somewhat Semiticized Africans. 



j On. the Supposed Want of the Sagittal Suture in Certain Tribes of Negroes. 

 Studies in Pliysiology and Medicine, 1863, p. 344, Med. Chir. Eeview. 1836, N.S. 

 No. 49, p. 285. One of the skulls is in the Museum at Ilaslar Hospital, where I 

 have had the opportunity of measuring it. 



s 2 



