FONTANELLA METOPICA IN AN ADULT SKULL 261 



obliterated, on the inner surface more than on the outer. This 

 is also true of the internasal suture, although its course can still 

 be recognized (the suture was retouched in fig. 2), and therefore 

 the right nasal bone is found at its upper end to extend far into 

 the left. On each side, at the incisura parietalis, there is a 

 Wormian bone. The lambdoid suture is rich in Wormian bones. 

 It is noteworthy that there is present on both sides of the man- 

 dible a well pronounced processus anguli mandibulae (apophysis 

 lemurica) , which points downward and outward and shows rough 

 outhnes for muscle-insertion. The latter are likewise present on 

 the thick zygomatic arch. Attention may also be called at 

 this point to the prominent processus marginalis on the posterior 

 border of the malar bone. The processus anguli mandibulae 

 assumes in our case special interest, in as much as Herpin ('07) 

 reported that this anomaly is rare in the negro and when present 

 is poorly developed. 



The abnormal suture on the frontal bone, which is situated 

 not exactly median but somewhat to the right, consists on its 

 outer surface of a transverse, irregular, dentate part, 15 mm. 

 long, and of two lateral, ascending limbs, which diverge upward 

 and have a length of 9 and of 13 mm. on the right and on the left 

 respectively. The distance between the upper ends of these 

 diverging limbs is 23 mm. The middle of the transverse part is 

 situated 25 mm. above the nasion and 15 mm. below the line con- 

 necting the two tubera frontalia. If, as according to Schwalbe 

 ('01) the length of the frontal arc is represented as 100, then 

 the transverse portion of the suture lies 20.3 above the na- 

 sion. It is of interest to compare the position of the abnormal 

 suture on the frontal bone in the author's case with those re- 

 ported by Schwalbe ('01), Fischer ('02) and Davida ('14). Table 

 1 is a compilation of the tables of the two first mentioned authors 

 with the corresponding measurements of Davida's case and of 

 that herein described. The figures show that the suture or fis- 

 sure is always situated below the level of the tubera frontalia, 

 and with only two exceptions always in the upper half of the 

 nasal third of the nasion-bregma arc. In the twelve European 

 skulls the average relative distance between the nasion and the 



