VOMEE. MALAR BONE. 51 



maxillary fossa into the nasal cavity, and transmits the internal neiTes 

 from Meckel's ganglion and the nasal branch of the internal maxillary 

 artery. 



THE VOMER 



The vomer is a thin mesial bone, irregularly quadrilateral, and 

 placed vertically between the nasal fossse. It articulates with the 

 sphenoid, ethmoid, palate, and maxillary bones, and with the septal 

 cartilage of the nose. It usually becomes united by anchylosis, at an 

 early age, to other bones. 



The "lower and back part of the vomer forms a thin mesial ])laic, 

 while the upper and anterior part consists of two «te, rising on each 

 side of a mesial groove, in which lies the septal cartilage of the nose. 

 The alte posteriorly are thick and expanded, and form the bifid 

 posterior extremity of the bone, which rests beneath the sphenoid. The 

 superior border of each ala articulates edge to edge with the lamella 

 projecting inwards at the base of the internal pterygoid plate, and 



Fig. 42.— The Vomer (A. T.) % 



A, from the right side ; B, from above. Fig. 42. 



1, 1', the upper everted edges, or aloe on each 

 side of the hollow which receives the rostrum 

 of the sphenoid ; 2, the anterior or ethmoid 

 border, grooved to receive the septal cartilage 

 of the nose, and prolonged at x into a j)rocess 

 which rests upon the nasal crest ; 3, the pos- 

 terior or free border ; 4, the inferior or maxil- 

 lary and palatine border. 



the sphenoidal process of the palate bone, while the 

 cavity between the alfe receives the rostrum of the 

 sphenoid ; the anterior border, sloping downwards and 

 forwards, in contact with the septal cartilage, is free in 

 the inferior part, and is united superiorly by anchylosis 

 on one or both sides with the central plate of the ethmoid. 

 The anterior extremity of the vomer fonns a short vertical 

 plate which fits in behind the nasal crest of the maxil- 

 laries, and from the upper end of which a process projects 

 forwards in the groove of the crest, while from its lower 

 end a point projects downwards between the incisor fora- 

 mina. The inferior border articulates with the ridge or 

 crest which rises from the palate plates of the maxillary 

 and palate bones. The posterior border, thin, smooth, and unattached, 

 separates the posterior nares. 



THE MALAR BONE. 



The malar bone forms the most prominent part of the cheek, and 

 divides the orbit from the temporal fossa. It articulates by a broad 

 serrated surface near its anterior inferior angle with the malar process 

 of the superior maxillary bone, by a slender posterior process with the 

 zygoma, by a superior process with the frontal, and, continuously with 

 that, by the margin of its deep plate with the great wing of the sphe- 

 noid bone. Between its sphenoidal and maxillary articulations a small 

 portion of free margin generally intervenes, which closes the anterior 



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