TERATOLOGY. 



955 



length of the under jaw. These distortions 

 give to such monstrosities a certain brute-like 

 aspect which induced the Germans to call them 

 Katzenkopfe and the French teles de crapaud. 

 If the cervical part of the spinal column is in 

 the meantime cleft, the cervix is so shortened, 

 that the head seems to he fixed on the shoul- 

 ders, and the chin rests on the breast, as is 

 represented in fig. 606. 



The malformation of the bones of the skull 

 and of the face is very great ; but as its de- 

 scription would take too much room here, I 

 refer the reader to my handbook and my plates, 

 and also to fg. 607., which will give a clear 

 idea of it. 



Fig. 607. 



Skull of a new lorn Child with Acrania. 



a, a, frontals ; b, nasals ; c, c, very convex zygoma- 

 tic bones ; d, small ensiform processes ; e, sella 

 turcica ; f, f, aids majores ossis sphenoidei ; g, g, 

 petrous bones ; h, basal part of the sphenoid 

 bone ; i, i, condyloid parts of the occipital bone ; 

 /, /, depressed squamous parts of the occipital bone ; 

 m, small osseous lamina?, representing the parietal 

 bones. 



Second Type. The denuded surface of the 

 basis crariti occupied by a spongy substance, 

 instead of brain. In most cases vesicles, 

 filled with a serous liquor, were observed to 

 occur in this spongy substance, and with 

 these occasionally also medullary corpuscles, 

 which may be considered as rudiments of 

 brain. There is sometimes a rudiment of 

 the cerebellum, together with a rudiment which 

 is continued into the spinal medulla, as though 

 it were a medulla oblongata. The cerebral 

 nerves are sometimes quite separated from, 

 sometimes united with, the spongy substance. 

 Sometimes they have the form of complete 

 or lacerated bags, which extend along the 

 superior surface of the skull and the posterior 

 surface of the spinal column. The spinal co- 



lumn is either perfect, or partially, and some- 

 times entirely, cleft. The last of these con- 

 ditions is represented in Jig. 608. 



Fig. 608. 



To this form of monstrosity Geoffrey St. 

 Hilaire gives the name of anencephalus. Spe- 

 cimens of it were found amongst the Egyptian 

 mummies in the sacred sepulchres of the Cy- 

 nocepha/i and Ibis, which is a very interesting 

 fact as regards monstrous births in those 

 times. 



Third Type. The surface of the basis 

 cranii only partially denuded, a spongy 

 tumour occupying the place of the brain. The 

 skull may be closed at its posterior part, 

 and remain open at its summit. A more 

 or less malformed cerebral substance appears 

 on the summit of the skull, just as if it were 



Fig. 609. 



Section of the Head of a Child with Acrania, to show 

 the union of the malformed brain with the spinal 

 cord. 



or, b, cellular sacs, taking the place of the brain ; c, 

 occipital bone ; d, spinal cord. 



