SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 



is:; 



part of the sagittal and the middle of the left coronal suture. The 

 " crista galli " and internal occipital crest were deflected to the left 

 and presented a concavity directed towards the right. The left cere- 

 bral hemisphere and left side of the cerebellum were much atrophied, 

 and the posterior and descending horns of the lateral ventricle on 

 both sides were enormously dilated. Thus we have in this case 

 atrophy of the brain on the left side associated with a diminution in 

 the size of the skull on the same side and a partial obliteration of the 

 posterior sutures and of the left half of the coronal suture. I am in- 

 clined to think, however, that the 

 union of the sutures in this case was 

 normal, and the commencement of 

 synostosis on the left side of the 

 coronal suture before the right was 

 not a direct result of the atrophic 

 condition of the brain, as the atrophy 

 of the left hemisphere must have 

 been present long before the suture 

 commenced to close. The closure of 

 the left half of the coronal suture in 

 the middle of its extent, namely, in 

 the region of the stephanion, is char- 

 acteristic of the normal synostosis 

 which takes place with the advance 

 of age, and it is quite common for one-half of the suture to begin to 

 close before the other half. It is worth noting, however, that not- 

 withstanding the atrophic condition of the brain, the closure of the 

 sutures was not only incomplete at the age of sixty-six, but that in 

 some sutures ossification had not even commenced. Further, the 

 premature union of one-half of the coronal suture, which occurs at 

 an early stage of development, and most probably before birth, is 

 obviously not due to atrophy of the brain on that side of the skull, 

 for the false cerebri, as judged from the position of the sagittal suture 

 and bregma, is in these cases bulged over to the opposite side to give 



Fig. 2. Skull with absence of the left half 

 of the coronal suture and the bregma to 

 the right of the middle line. 



