DE. J. THURNAM ON SYNOSTOSIS OF THE CRANIAL BONES. 



263 



At au early period, tlie right interparietal became united to the right 

 supra-occipital, and the left to the upper anciposterior angle of the 



Fig. 9. Obliqnehj-verHcal View of Synosfotic Skull from ^loiiMon.— Quarter 

 Diameter. 



left parietal. The bizarre and, at first sight, puzzling outline of the 

 occiput is explained by this unsymmetrical and rare form of synos- 

 tosis. In nearly all the skulls of this series the sutures are more 

 obliterated than usual. Three calvaria of men, of 50 to Q^ years, 

 present considerable rugosities iu the line of the obliterated sagittal, 

 which in two assumes the form of a carina continued along the 

 frontal. The synostosis may perhaps be of the infantile description ; 

 but if it had any influence in the production of the lengthened form, 

 this must have been trivial in extent; the dolichocephalism being 

 ob^iously original and proper to the series.* 



In the Museum at Guy's Hospital are two skulls from the cham- 

 bered barrow at Uley, Gloucestershire ; one of which, that of a man 

 far advanced in life, has been described in the pages of Crania Bri- 

 annica (PL XXIY, 5). The other, that of a girl of nine or ten years 

 of age, is of much interest, in connection with the present inquiry. f 

 Like its companion adult skull, it is very dolichocephalous, having 

 the proportion of breadth as '73 to the length taken as 100. There 

 is a somewhat saddle-formed contraction, which extends along the 



* These skulls, with the circumstances under which they were discovered, are 

 described in Crun. Brit. PL XXVIII, 58. 



f No. 3201. Mus. Gu3''s Hospital. The skull is briefly described Cran. Brit. 

 PI. XXIV, 5.p.(5). 



