347 



into contact with the walls of the burrow. With such an adaptation, 

 the animals is doubtlessly better equibbed for the detection of vibrations 

 of the surrounding earth, whether these be caused by prey or by foe. 

 It seems, therefore, highly probable that this protuberance, containing 

 five large vibrissae and innervated by a purely sensory nerve, functions 

 in nature as a tactile organ. 



Summary. 



1. A protuberance containing five vibrissae is present in the 

 cheek of the shrew mole, Scalops aquaticus machrinus (Rafinesque). 



2. More or less similar structures occur in the cheeks of white- 

 footed mice, bats, rats, and opossums. 



3. Of the animals examined, those with well developed snout 

 vibrissae have small protuberances in their cheeks. 



4. The elevation of the tissues constituting the protuberance is 

 probably caused by the growth of the vibrissae, by the enormously 

 developed blood sinuses of the latter, and by the increased amount 

 of supporting tissue present. 



5. The protuberance is innervated by a sensory ramus from the 

 temporal portion of the auriculotemporal branch of the mandibular nerve. 



6. This protuberance in the cheek of the mole functions as a 

 tactile organ. 



I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Wm. F. Allen, 

 and to Dr. Frederic "W". Carpenter for many helpful suggestions. 



Nachdruck verboten. 



The sutura parietalis of the Mammals. 



A. B. VAN Deinse, Assistant Zoot. Lab. Leiden, Holland. 

 With 1 Figure. 

 In 1753 Tarin (1) found a divided os parietale of man, and in 

 1759 Sue (2) found something identical. These two cases are, as far 

 as I know, the first that have been found so far as the skull of man 

 is concerned. Since this time new cases of this kind have repeatedly 

 been found and described, and in 1903 their number was already 61, 

 according to Le Double (3). Meanwhile new specimens will certainly 

 have been found again, but I have never been able to find an accurate 

 statement of them, as the most extensive researches of this kind are 

 all dated 1903, or a little earlier. This about the sutura parietalis 

 of the skull of man. 



