DR. J. TUUEIN'AM ON SYNOSTOSIS OF TUE CRANIAL BONES. 255 



ceutral line of tlie biparietal is the commencemeut of a \erj slight 

 carina, wliicli is continued along the median line of the frontal. In 

 the line where the sagittal suture ought to be, in the third, fourth, 

 and fifth divisions of Welcker, a slight groove or depression may be 

 perceived ; and around this for some distance the surface of the bone 

 has an appearance of roughness and porosity, with many minute 

 openings studding it. Among these I detect no certain trace of 

 either of the parietal foramina. The upper maxillarics are short, the 

 supranasal and supraciliary bosses of the frontal prominent. There 

 is no lower jaw with the skull. 



"Whilst preparing this paper in September, 1864, I excavated a 

 remarkable long tumulus near Imber, in South Wiltshire, called 

 Bowl's Barrow, and obtained from it a fine specimen of the same 

 form of synostotic cranium.* The skull, No. 210 of my collection, 

 is that of a man from 20 to 25 years of age. It is a massive skull, 

 having a thickness which reaches | of an inch, or fifteen milKmeters, 

 in the frontal bone. The forehead is narrow, elevated and smooth, 

 the supranasal prominence full, the face narrow, the upper maxillaries 

 short ; all the sutures except the sagittal appear distinct and unossified, 

 a,nd the central part of the coronal is widely open. Around the 

 junction of the biparietal and occipital, is a considerable opening, in 

 consequence of the posthumous decay of the bones. It follows that 

 only the anterior half of the line of the sagittal suture can be traced ; 

 but, as this portion of the suture is the last to ossify, there can be 

 no doubt that the whole was obliterated.f There is no trace what- 

 ever of any suture ; but where it should have been, a somewhat 

 rugose and thickened condition is detected, though more distinctly 

 by the touch than by sight. A considerable and wide saddle-shaped 

 contraction behind the coronal suture loses itself in the temporal 

 fossae. The parietal tubers are full ; but not being so prominent as 



* For a description of this Barrow, and of the other skulls obtained from it, 

 see Memoirs of the Anthropological Society, vol. i. 1865, p. 472, 



f To the right of the line of the sagittal, and running parallel with it, is a 

 sharply-defined crack extending to the coronal suture. From its appearance and 

 from a peculiar perforation at its further end, I conjecture that the skull may 

 have been cleft at or before death, and may be that of a slave slaughtered at 

 the burial of his lord. On this subject see Memoirs of the Antliropological So- 

 ciety, vol. i. p. 146-8, 480. Cran. Brit. pis. XXVI, 50, XXVII, 59. Archa;ologia, 

 vol xxxviii., p. 419. 



