in.] THE CRANIAL SKELETON. 85 



Besides the articulations mentioned, the maxilla joins with 

 the ethmoid, the vomer, and the inferior turbinal. 



At birth there may be a suture on the palatine surface of 

 the bone, separating off that small front part in which the 

 incisor teeth are afterwards implanted. 



9. The MALAR bone is irregularly triangular in shape. It 

 forms the outer wall of the bony orbit, and connects the 

 zygomatic process of the squamous part of the temporal 

 bone with the maxilla. It joins above with the external 

 angular process of the frontal, and posteriorly with the great 

 ala of the sphenoid. 



The NASALS are small bones placed side by side above the 

 nares, joining the frontal above, and separating the nasal 

 processes of the two maxillary bones one from the other. 



The LACHRYMALS are small bones, one of which is placed 

 at the anterior part of the inner wall of each orbit, having 

 the frontal above, the os planum of the ethmoid behind, the 

 nasal process of the maxilla in front, and the orbital plate of 

 the same bone below. Each is marked with a vertical groove, 

 which, by joining the similarly directed groove (before spoken 

 of) on the posterior side of the maxillary nasal process, forms 

 a canal leading from the orbit to the nasal cavity, and termed 

 lachrymal because the tears pass down it. 



10. The palate bones, or PALATINES, are very irregular in 

 shape, and wedged in between the maxilla and the pterygoid 

 processes of the sphenoid. Each consists of a long vertical 

 plate, from the bottom of which a smaller horizontal plate 

 projects inwards, meeting its fellow of the opposite side in the 

 middle line, and completing the palate behind the maxilla. 

 The palatine contributes to separate the nasal fossa from the 

 mouth, and extends up into the orbit, where it appears at the 

 back part of its inner wall beneath the os planum, separating 

 the sphenoid .from the maxilla, and helping to bound the 

 spheno-palatine foramen. Its outer side is grooved vertically, 

 the groove forming, with the help of the maxilla, the posterior 

 palatine canal. Its posterior surface is interposed between 

 the external and internal pterygoid processes cf either side, 

 thus completing the pterygoid fossa in front. The palatine 

 articulates also with the vomer and inferior turbinal. 



11. The VOMER * is a single median bone extending down 

 from the sphenoid and median ethmoid to the upper surface 

 of the bony palate, thus completing the median partition 

 between the nostrils. Its hinder margin marks the partition 



1 I.e. ploughshare, so called from its shape. 



