OBLITERATION OF SUTURES IN SKULL 



515 



TABLE 4 

 Obliteration of the sagittal suture 



mature concrescence. In the preceding paragraph I dem- 

 onstrated my view on the significance of the premature closure 

 of the sagittal and masto-occipital suture, and in particular 

 I objected there to the conception of a pathological process, 

 result of a general constitutional disease, causing the obliteration 

 of these sutures. For when in two sutures (which possess as 

 to the development of the skull identical significance, as is the 

 case with the sagittal and coronal sutures) a premature ob- 

 literation appears in the former 47 times and in the latter only 6 

 times, then one must conclude that other and more special in- 

 fluences have to be regarded as causing the difference. If the 

 obliteration was caused by a general and constitutional disease, 

 one would expect the number of premature obliterations in both 

 sutures to be ahnost the same. Here I repeat that I do not wish 

 to deny that general diseases of the skeletal system can evoke 

 an unfavorable influence on the sutures of the skull. Then still 

 there is no reason why the osteogenesis, which can be dis- 

 turbed in all other subdivisions of the skeleton by diseases of 

 the bony tissue, should remain always normal in the skull. 

 The abnormal process should present a character of generality 

 and irregularity and the suture-system should show different 

 signs of the disturbing influence. In the sagittal and masto- 

 occipital suture the obliteration shows too clearly a sharply 

 defined morphological character. 



