ON METOPISM 
By these two circumstances the frontal suture in man becomes 
independent from the dynamical influence of the temporal muscle. 
Hence in man there is a return to the conditions as met with in 
Prosimians, though the anatomy of the skull and the muscles is 
quite different. The mechanical cause for the disappearance of 
the suture in monkeys having fallen out, the circumstances be- 
come very favorable to the persistence. Now it is obvious 
that these conditions act most favorably in individuals With a 
more prominent forehead and a less pronounced development of 
the masticatory musculature. In the White race therefore, the 
possibility for the persistance of the suture is far greater than in 
the races with a more flattened forehead, a higher development 
of the dentition and of the temporal muscle. And this may be 
considered the cause, accounting for the fact that commonly 
metopism is more frequent in Europeans than in Negroes or 
Australians. 
