291 
KoLLMANN (9) however has changed his opinion and this is 
apparent from Fig. 263 of his atlas, where we find a bipartite parietale 
of a human embryo in the end of the third month. Besides the two 
opinions mentioned above, two others exist, which come from Ita- 
hlan examiners. 
In 1896 namely, Maecı admitted 3 centra of ossification for the 
parietale of human beings, two of which would very soon melt together. 
And in 1900 Frasserro (12) carried the number of centra to four, 
for human beings and primates. (Su la probabile presenza di quattro 
nuclei di ossificazione nel parietale dell’ Uomo e delle scimmie.) 
In 1901 FrAsserro (13) reverts to this theory. These last two 
Opinions have not many followers and have never had them, though 
we must admit that sometimes cases of superfluous sutures on the 
parietale occur which seem to justify the acceptance of 3 or 4 centra 
of development. HRDLICKA (3) too refers to this in Macacus rhesus 
and Ateles and gives pictures of such cases. 
PatTEeN (14) describes a chimpanzee’s skull with both the parie- 
talia tripartite, very regular. Finally it can also happen that the 
parietale is not composed of 1, 2, 3, or 4 parts but of a very great 
number of separate pieces of bone. Bouk (15) has described and 
represented such a case of a human being and says: 
„Statt der zwei normalen Verknöcherungsherde sind in unserem 
Falle eine grosse Anzahl Ossifikationspunkte in der Parietalen Region 
des häutigen Schädels aufgetreten.“ 
We have here a parietale consisting of about 40 parts. VROLIK 
(16) too gives a picture of a similar case in his atlas, and more of 
these cases are known. 
Besides the os parietale, also the other bones of the skull in these 
latter cases, are usually composed of merely small pieces of bone, 
and Cu. A. PARKER once saw a human skull with 172 separate pieces! 
But all these latter cases are decidedly pathologic and a parietale 
divided in such a way must not be compared with a normal parietale. 
For completeness’ sake I also mention a short communication 
by Huco Kantor (17) who found the right and left parietale divided 
in a perfectly horizontal and slanting way in a newly-born animal 
of Macacus rhesus and saw something like it on the skull of a full- 
grown 2 too. These two cases of Macacus rhesus are therefore im- 
portant, because it is again apparent from them that the sutura 
parietalis occurs so often in this monkey. From the 53 times that 
19% 
