100 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



with synostosis of adjacent sutures, namely of the parietals with the 

 temporal bones, and the posterior end of the sagittal suture, an enor- 

 mous development in the region of the anterior fontanelle takes place, 

 causing the "steeple shaped" deformity of the head, called oxyce- 

 phalus ; this is associated with great prominence of the eyeballs, 

 or proptosis. In one extreme case of oxycephalus which was de- 

 scribed by H. Power, in Trans. Ofthtli. Soe., vol. xiv., p. 212, 

 Professor Cunningham, who examined the skull after death, found 

 "synostosis of every suture and synchondrodial joint, with the 

 exception of the joint between the ex -occipital and basi-occipital ". 

 There was "absence of the corpus callosum," and he also found 

 that " the convolutions of the brain had pressed so hard against 

 the ossifying cranial vault, that the normal dimples on its inner sur- 

 face had become deep bony pits like a honeycomb, and that the floors 

 of the pits had become exceedingly thin and diaphanous ". Other 

 cases of this deformity have been described by Dodd and McMullen, 

 Lfutrct, 1903, vol. i., p. 1665, and Captain Tucker, Lancet, 1904, vol. 

 i., p. 88. 



Another well-known condition is the deformity known as the 

 boat-shaped skull, or " scaphocephalus ". This is associated with pre- 

 mature union of the parietal bones at the sagittal suture. This causes 

 arrest of growth in the transverse direction, and to make up for the 

 narrowness of the skull, there is a compensatory increase in its length. 

 In the most typical form, the line usually occupied by the sagittal 

 suture is raised up into a rounded ridge or " keel ". The keel is, how- 

 ever, frequently absent, as in specimens 129 A and 620 E in the 

 museum of the R.C.S. England, in both of which there is a slight 

 post-coronal constriction, while in 620 E the metopic suture has re- 

 mained open, a circumstance which, if more frequent in these skulls, 

 would be .suggestive of the persistence of the suture being due to 

 increased intracranial tension in this position ; I am doubtful, how- 

 ever, whether this is the case, and, certainly, in the greater number, 

 the suture is closed, and the union has presumably taken place at the 

 usual linn-, ur possibly in those cases in which the median keel ex- 



