On Idiotism. 101 
occur in the hydrocephalic, and in children 
possessing premature mental powers. 
(a) Dr. Reeve has given a drawing of the 
head of a cretin who died aged thirty years, 
and has noticed some curious facts; the an- 
terior fontanelle was not closed; the os occi- 
pitis was very large, with numerous ossa 
Triquetra in the lambdoid suture; the tem- 
poral bones were imperfect, and the second 
set of teeth not out of their sockets. In 
the face, the maxillary, cheek, and nasal 
bones were not completed. ‘The head was 
very large, and the face small, resembling the 
skull of an adult upon the face of a child. 
This statement shews defective and irregular 
ossification of the bones of the head, and it 
is curious to observe in this as well as many 
other instances how very much bony formation 
is impeded, by defective organization of the 
brain. 
When the inside of the skull has been 
viewed, equal defects have been found at the 
base: (b) the large holes situated betwixt the 
cuneiform process of the occipital; and the 
petrous portion of the temporal bones, through 
* which pass the eighth pair of nerves, the ac- 
(a) Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, Vol 5. 
(b) Vide Fodere. Traite du Goitre et du Cretinisme. p. 144. 
