'THE SUTURES. 149 



Remarks. The maxillare inferius has a greater influence on the 

 form of the face than any other bone entering into its composi- 

 tion. Sometimes it is much smaller in proportion in certain in- 

 dividuals than in others. Sometimes its sides, being widely se- 

 parated, cause a great shortening to the chin, and breadth to the 

 lower hind part of the face. In many instances, the alveolar 

 processes, in front, incline obliquely over the outer circumfe- 

 rence of the bone, and thereby give to the chin the appearance 

 of receding considerably. In others, the alveoli incline over 

 the inner circumference, which causes the chin to project unu- 

 sually. 



CHAPTER III. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE HEAD. 



HAVING described the individual bones of the head, it will 

 now be proper to consider it as a whole. 



SECT. I. OF THE SUTURES. 



Except in advanced age, the bones of the cranium and of the 

 face are very distinctly marked off and united by sutures. 



The latter are formed by the proximate edges of the bones, 

 presenting a multitude of sharp serrated points, and of deep 

 narrow pits, by which they are brought into accurate and firm 

 contact. Here and there, in the sutures which unite the flat 

 bones of the cranium, we find not only sharp points, but com- 

 plete dove-tail processes of the one bone received into corre- 

 sponding cavities of the other. The denticulation of the sutures 

 is much more common, and much better marked, on the exter- 

 nal than on the internal surface of the cranium. On the latter, 

 the union of the bones is, in several instances, by a joint nearly 

 straight; in which case, the denticulation is almost exclusively 

 confined to the external table and to the diploic structure. 



The Coronal Suture, (Sutura Coronalis,) so named from its 



13* 



