52 



PRACTICAL ANATOMY. 



sphenoid and below with the nasal crest formed by the 

 articulation of the horizontal processes of the superior 

 maxillary and palate bones. It assists in forming the 

 partition, or septum, of the nose. It presents two sur- 

 faces and four borders, superior, anterior, inferior, and 

 posterior. It is somewhat diamond-shaped, its outline 

 being not unlike that of an arrow-head. The surfaces are 

 smooth. Running obliquely from behind, forward and 

 downward, is the naso-palatine groove, transmitting the 

 naso-palatine nerve ; it terminates, in the articulated skull, 

 at the anterior palatine canal. The surfaces of the vomer 

 form part of the inner wall of the nasal cavities. The 



superior border is thin 

 and irregular, and ar- 

 ticulates with the per- 

 pendicular plate of the 

 ethmoid, and anteriorly 

 with the septal carti- 

 lage of the nose. The 

 inferior border is rough, 

 and articulates with the 

 nasal crest along the middle line of the floor of the nose. 

 The posterior border is slightly concave, rounded and 

 smooth, and forms the separation between the openings 

 of the posterior nares. The superior border is thick, 

 thickest at its posterior part, and thrown into two well- 

 marked alae, or wings, which fit on either side of the 

 rostrum of the sphenoid, forming with the vomer a 

 tongue-and-groove articulation. The anterior border is 

 directed obliquely forward and downward, the superior 

 upward and obliquely backward, the inferior border 

 nearly horizontally, and the posterior border obliquely 

 backward and downward. The vomer develops by two 

 centres, which appear about the second month ; at first 



FIG. 23. VOMER. 



