MEMOIKS OP THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 207 



Walter, Human Osteology, Berlin, 1798, says: 



' It is rare that the entire boue is ossified. It occurs only in very advanced age." 



The conclusion which one draws from these statements is that the great cornna of the hyoid 

 bone remain free even 111 old age in the majority of examples upon which these observations have 

 been made, and all these authorities seem to agree that it is only at a very advanced period of life 

 that any of the hyoidean elements coossify. Taking for granted that the observations of German 

 anatomists have been made upon German materials for the most part, one can safely say, if these 

 statements be correct, that this is the normal condition of the German hyoid. 



French anatomists make a different statement. Sappey, in his Traite d' 'anatomic descriptive, 

 1867-'7U, says: 



"At 40 or 50 years, ofttimes before that period, the great cornua are joined to the body. The little horns are 

 also sometimes joined to the body, but oulyin old age." 



Boyer, Traite d'anatomie, 1803-'9, says : 

 "With ago the great cornua are joined to the body. The small cornua also unite, but this happens much later." 



Cruveilhier, Anatomie descriptive, 1844, says : 



" All the pieces are at first separated by considerable portions of cartilage, afterwards by a very thin layer, which 

 sometimes remains during life." 



Portal, Coiirs d'anatomie medicale, 1803, says: 



' The borders of the body and the middle of the greater horns ossify first, but they remain epiphyses for a long 

 time, or separated from the body of the bone by a portion iiot ossified, and which hardens with age. The small 

 cornua remain still longer without ossifying; but in old age not only are all the pieces of the hyoid united, but the 

 stylohyoid ligament is ossified." 



Beauuis and Bouchard, Nouveaux iSl&menta d'anatomie descriptive, 1873, say : 



"The great cornua are sometimes united to the body by a true movable articulation. The small cornua are habitu- 

 ally movable upon the rest of the bone." 



One would be led to infer from these statements that the normal condition of the French hyoid, 

 allowing that the observations of the French anatomists have been made upon French subjects, is 

 the complete consolidation of all the five elements and, if Sappey's statement can be trusted, at a 

 comparatively early period of life, so far at least as the great cornua are concerned. 



It is a difficult matter to reconcile these statements of the French and German anatomists 

 otherwise than upon the ground of difference in the structure of the hyoid itself in these two peo- 

 ples. It would be interesting to determine the truth or falsity of this supposition. 



English anatomists agree more nearly with the French in their statements of the hyoidean 

 pieces. Flower, in his Osteology of the Mammalia, 1870, says of the human hyoid: 



"The thyrohyals or great coruua of the hyoid bone are elongated, nearly straight, and somewhat compressed. 

 They usually become anehylosed before middle life with the outer extremity of the basihyal." 



Holdeu, Hitman Osteology, 1885, says: 



" Until the middle period of life the great cornua are united to the body by cartilage, but this ossifies in the prog- 

 ress of age." 



H. Hyde Salter, in Todffs Cyclopcedia of Anatomy and Physiology, article, "Tongues," says: 

 " Ossification begins in the greater cornua ; it then takes place in the body, where it begins soon after birth, and 

 finally in the lesser cornua, where it does not commence until some time after. It proceeds but slowly, and goner- 

 ally loaves a thin lamina of cartilage unossified, so that complete anchylosis into one bone is comparatively rare." 



Erasmus Wilson, Human Anatomy, 1859, says: 



"In early age and in the adult the cornua are connected with the body by cartilaginous surfaces and ligameutous 

 fibres, but in old age they become united by bone." 

 In Gray's Anatomy it is stated : 



"In youth the cornua are connected to the body by cartilaginous surfaces and held together by ligaments; in 

 middle life tho body and greater cornua usually become joined, and in old age all the segments are united together, 

 fin-mini; a single bone." 



Morton, Human Anatomy, 1849, says : 



" Tin! coruua are connected to the body by a distinct movable articulation, which generally, however, becomes 

 auchylosed later in life." 



