506 



L. BOLK 



say a doubt ought to arise whether such cases have been rightly 

 considered as pathological. It is true that it is premature, for 

 the individual has not attained his adult stage, but why patho- 

 logical? Could it not be possible that the normal variability 

 is even more extensive and that the age at which the obliteration 

 may begin, which as Fredericg truly found, reaches the thresh- 

 old of manhood, may also include a restricted period of childhood? 



The problem will be thoroughly examined later on. 



The results of my researches upon the said suture are ar- 

 ranged systematically in the following table 3. 



TABLE 3 

 Obliteration of the sagittal suture 



I wish once more to emphasize that in this table only those 

 skulls are referred to in which the process of obliteration was 

 limited to the sagittal suture. 



This table shows that in 47 skulls out of 1820 there was a 

 partial or total closure of the sagittal suture, making 2| per 

 cent. I had not expected to find such a considerable number. 

 The cases of partial obliteration outnumber those of entire 

 closure, a condition which is in no way surprising. For the 

 majority of the skulls are those of children, who died early in 

 life, so that the process of uniting had scarcely time to be extended 

 along the whole suture. 



In truth the fact that an entire obliteration was found in 19 

 skulls, making 1 per cent, surprises us as highly as the large 



