204 BONES OF THE FACE. 



some resemblance to the letter L. The palate bone is 

 divided into two portions, the horizontal or palatine and the 

 vertical or nasal portion. The horizontal portion is quadri- 

 lateral, and forms the posterior part of the hard palate. Its 

 upper surface is concave from side to side, and forms the 

 posterior nares, and where it unites with its fellow there 

 is a crest to connect with the vomer. This crest continues 

 backwards into a projecting process, constituting the poste- 

 rior nasal spine, to which the azygos uvulae muscle is at- 

 tached. The lower surface of the horizontal plate is rough 

 and completes the arch of the palate. Its anterior edge is 

 serrated obliquely and rests upon the palatine process of 

 the superior maxillary. Its posterior edge is thin and con- 

 cave and gives attachment to the velum palati. 



The vertical or nasal plate rises perpendicularly from the 

 horizontal, and is thin and broad; it presents two surfaces, 

 an external and internal, and two edges, an anterior and 

 posterior. The external surface is uneven and rough in 

 front where it unites with the superior maxillary. It is 

 grooved into a canal the posterior palatine canal for the 

 passage of the palatine vessels and nerves. This canal is 

 bounded in front by the tuberosity. The inner or nasal 

 surface is divided by a transverse ridge to which the infe- 

 rior turbinated bone is articulated. This ridge has a de- 

 pression above and below it; the upper corresponds to the 

 middle meatus, the lower to the inferior meatus of the nose. 

 At the point of junction of the nasal with the horizontal 

 plate is the pterygoid process or tuberosity. It is thick, and 

 wedge-shaped, and occupies the space at the lower part, 

 and between the two plates of the pterygoid processes of 

 the sphenoid bone. It presents three surfaces, two lateral 

 uniting with the pterygoid plates, and one posterior and 

 concave forming part of the pterygoid fossa. One or two 

 small foramina perforate this process from the palatine 

 canal. At the superior extremity of the nasal plate are 

 seen two processes,, the orbital and sphenoidal. The orbital 

 is anterior and the larger of the two ; it is triangular and is 

 situated in the most posterior part of the floor of the orbit, 



