OBLITERATION OF SUTURES IN SKULL 523 



This fact however is not altogether inconceivable. When the 

 metopical suture, obliterating normally between the second and 

 third year, persists this fact points to a decreasing tendency of 

 the sutures of the skull to coalesce. And that in such skulls a 

 premature obliteration does not take place, seems to me a 

 very natural phenomei:Lon. This fact can be considered as a 

 new proof of the justness of my opinion that premature ob- 

 literation of the sutures is not caused by a general pathological 

 influence, but that it is a phenomenon of which the origin has 

 to be looked for in the sutures themselves and in the process 

 of growth localized in them. 



