318 



lachrymal groove, and presents all the features, which would appear to 

 justify one in saying that it is merely a detached portion of the la- 

 chrymal; since it and the lachrymal together reproduce exactly the 

 normal conformation and extent of this bone. 



On the right side of the skull the lachrymal presents no features 

 by which it differs from the normal bone. 



Although, as stated above, the ossicle appears to be merely a 

 detached fragment of the lachrymal, there seems good reason for 

 regarding it as the representative of the accessory ossicle which has 

 for long been known to occur, with sufficiently remarkable frequency, 

 in the human skull, and which was apparently first detected by Rosen- 



Fig. 1. 

 I laclirymal; 



Skull of Lion. Lateral asiject. 

 accessory ossicle. 



/ frontal ; vi malar ; sm maxilla ; 



MÜLLER (1), who remarked its presence in two skulls. In 1858, it was 

 called the "Neben thränenbein" by Luschka (2), who concluded that it 

 was merely an intercalated ossicle standing in no very precise relation- 

 ship. A little later (1859), Budge (3) found it to occur in as many 

 as 6 skulls out of 184; and in 1860 its characters were examined by 

 Mayer (4) who regarded it as a small half-separated Pars facialis 

 of the lachrymal bone itself. 



Macalister (5), in his paper on -the variations and morphology 

 of the human lachrymal bone, refers to Luschka's "Nebenthränenbein" 

 under the name of Ossiculum maxillo-frontale, and claims to have 

 found it in 1 7o of the skulls examined by him. He considers it to 

 be "formed by a detached slip of the maxilla along the upper part 



