34 Transactions. — Zoology. 



has been already noted, and, in consequence, the skull as seen 

 from above is decidedly obovate. The level of the maximum 

 transverse diameter varies. In six skulls it is at the parietal 

 eminences, in nine on the parietal bones lower down, in 

 twenty-two on the squamous suture, and in four on the 

 ■squamosal portion of the temporal bone. The temiwral fossa 

 are large, and include the parietal eminences, and a p^st- 

 bregmatic hollowing is not uncommon. The form and size of 

 the glabella and superciliary ridges has been already de- 

 scribed. 



Sutures. — The coronal and sagittal sutures are, as a rule, 

 simple. The lambdoid is complicated, sometimes exceedingly 

 so. In many skulls the coronal suture is quite unserrated, 

 except for a short clistance above the stephanion. The part 

 below the stephanion is always simple, and is frequently 

 ossified ; indeed, this suture shows partial or complete fusion 

 much more frequently than does the lambdoidal. In those 

 skulls which show commencing obliteration of the sagittal 

 suture I have noted that the process had begun anteriorly in 

 eight skulls ; jposteriorly, or in the region of the obelion, in six. 



No skull in my series is metopic, but three show a short 

 fissure in the glabella. 



An interparietal hone is present in one skull — an adult 

 male. In it a distinct serrated suture passes across the 

 occipital bone from lateral angle to lateral angle. In three 

 others, though the division of the occipital is not complete, 

 yet there are fissures extending in towards the protuberance 

 from the lateral angles. An interparietal bone was also pre- 

 sent in one of the skulls examined by Professor Turner. 



Pterion.—lxi the great majority of cases this is H-shaped, 

 the length of the articulation between the parieial and the 

 great wing of the sphenoid varying from 1mm. to 19mm., 

 and averaging between 8mm. and 9mm. A K-shaped pterion 

 was noted once. In another case the squamosal bone articu- 

 lates with the frontal, but this is by means of a process 

 projecting forward from the former bone, an epipteric which 

 has fused with it. Free epipteric bones were noted twenty- 

 six times in nineteen skulls. Sometimes these completely 

 separate the four bones of the region, but in other cases the 

 sphenoid and parietal articulate with each other either in 

 front of or behind the epipteric bone. 



Wormian Bones. — These are very often present, in addition 

 to the epipterics just described. I have noted their occurrence 

 in the lambdoid suture in twenty-eight skulls, in one com- 

 pletely separating the occipital from the parietal bones except 

 for a very slight contact close to the asterion ; at the asterion 

 in ten ; in the occipito-mastoid suture in eight ; in the parieto- 

 squamous in two. Small epactal bones were observed twice. 



