258 TUE NATUEAL HISTORY EEA^EW. 



unusual size. The breadth of the skull is as "67 to the length, 

 which is very disproportionately narrow. Though this exaggerated 

 dolichocephalism may in part be due to infantile synostosis of the 

 parietals, comparison with another cranium from the same chamber 

 (No. 138), proves that the elongation and narrowness of the first is 

 very partially dependent on the synostosis, and that its form has 

 ITeen naturally, and from the first dolichocephalic. In this last skull, 

 perhaps that of a brother, the form is quite dolichocephalic, the 

 breadth being in the proportion of '71 to the length. The 

 parietal eminences are however well expressed, and there is no trace of 

 any sagittal ridge or carina. On the internal surface all the sutures 

 (except the squamous) are obliterated, but they are quite distinct and 

 beautifully marked externally, excepting the fourth division of the 

 sagittal, which, in accordance with Welcker's law, is partially 

 effaced. There are two small parietal foramina in the usual situation. 

 This skull presents a tendency to prematurely senile obliteration ; 

 that last described is the subject of infantile and abnormal syn- 

 ostosis.* 



Tlie skull already referred to from the Long Barrow near Win- 

 terbourn Stoke (No. 159), which is that of a man of perhaps not 

 more than 25 years, presents even a greater amount of prematurely 

 senile obliteration. j" " The coronal and sagittal sutures are almost 

 entirely effaced, so that the synostosis of the frontal and parietal 

 is nearly complete." The proportion of the breadth of this skull to 

 its length is "75 ; so that it does not belong to the exagger- 

 atedly dolichocephalic class, but is sub-dolichocephalic, or indeed 

 rather ortho cephalic. It is clear there is no relation between the 

 degree of dolichocephalism and the synostosis, which in this instance 

 is so complete as to leave but slight traces of the affected sutures. 

 A general tendency to ossification appears to be shown by the con- 

 siderable exostotic growth on the liiiea asjpera of the right femur, 

 of which the obliteration of the sutures is another symptom. 



* Professor Welcker insists much on the distinctions between infantile and 

 senile obliteration of the sutures. " Injantile ohlitcration solders the bones mostly 

 through the entire thickness ; the ossification has sharply defined borders and makes 

 no tiaws. Senile ohliteration cements at its commencement here and there some 

 of the suture teeth, so that open chinks or interspaces remain; frequently the 

 growing together of the tabula vitrea is already complete, whilst externally spots 

 still open are visible." Loc. cit., p. 139. 



f The skull is fully described, with the barrow whence it was obtained, in 

 Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of London. Vol. i. p. 140, Plate I. 



