ON METOPISM 31 



heavier brain than usual, and finally we will enter into the ques- 

 tion of the aetiology of metopism in men. 



The material I used for this research consists of 1400 adult 

 skulls of inhabitants of Amsterdam who died during the second 

 half of the last century. It was gathered from one of the ceme- 

 teries of this town. 



In this collection I found 134 skulls with a persisting metop- 

 ical suture, that is 9.5 per cent. This relation equals that 

 found by Bryce in Scottish skulls and by Simon in Hamburghian 

 skulls, and agrees nearly with that found by Broca among the 

 old Parisian skulls. 



As mentioned in the introductory remarks, it is often claimed in 

 the literature that the metopical suture occurs more frequently 

 in brachycephalic than in dolichocephalic skulls. Now, we will 

 examine in the fii^st place whether this statement agrees with the 

 results of my own research. As a dolichocephalic skull I mean 

 in the following pages all those with an index cephalicus lower 

 than 80, omitting therefore a more detailed classification in meso- 

 cephalic, hyperdolichocephalic, etc. 



The number of brachycephalic crania present in the whole 

 collection of 1400 skulls, amounted to 420, or just 30 per cent, 

 and among the 134 metopical skulls, there were 55 or 41 per cent 

 brachycephalic. The number of brachycephalic skulls among 

 metopical crania surpasses, therefore, that among the collection 

 as a whole and the difference of 11 per cent really seems to be 

 very considerable. Only the fact merits mention that the abso- 

 lute number of metopical skulls (134) is a relatively small one, 

 and hence a few skulls more or less exert a perceptible influence 

 upon the percentage. Altogether the above described relation 

 proves that the majority of the metopical skulls is not brachyce- 

 phalic. And therefore I do not agree with the statement of 

 Anntchin that "metopical dolichocephalic skulls are relatively 

 rare." This conclusion, moreover, does not agree with the re- 

 sults of the investigation of Bryce who, among his material of 

 Scottish skulls, only met with two brachycephalic crania. Yet 

 in another way the eventual influence of a persisting metopical 

 suture upon the shape of the skull may be verified, namely in 



