TRANSACTIONS OF WAGNER 

 50 



HAWAIIAN SKULLS 



Ostitis 



Besides osteoporosis, the coast series showed many evidences of diseased 

 action. Knowing of the terrible devastation to which the natives were sub- 

 jected after European contact, it is not strange that the bones should in some 

 sense record it. In No. 1023, the skull of a young woman, the turbinated 

 bones and vomer were in part destroyed. The superficies of the face were 

 covered with a new growth from the periosteum, the result of ostitis. The 

 abrupt changes in contour of the sconce in many of the coast crania belong- 

 ing to the Academy of Natural Sciences, the presence of node-like swellings, 

 which are doubtless of inflammatory origin, give the impression that many of 

 these skulls had been collected after the natives had become infected with 

 syphilis.* The specimens obtained by Messrs. Sharp and Libbey at Kipakai 

 appear to be free from syphilis. The only effect of inflammation being 

 apparent in the bones of the nasal chamber. 



Hyperostosis of the Condyloid Process of the Lower Jaw retaining 

 the Normal Division of the Articular Surface 



In i86/ 3 I described the variations in the form of the condyloid process, 

 especially considering the degree of angulation, due to the wearing away of 

 the outer half of the process, and the tendency for the inner half (being rela- 



* The following notes on crania which were collected after diseases of European origin had 

 left their impression on the natives may prove of interest. 



No. 1860. Much diseased; ostitis of frontal bone; caries of the turbinals. 



No. 1863. Age, thirty-five, a good example of a dolichocephalic skull, with large prenasal 

 fossa. Alveolar process diseased and prematurely absorbed. Central incisors lost, probably from 

 caries. Excessive ostitis in right nasal chamber, involving the nasal bones ; the sutures in the orbits 

 closed, excepting that between the ethmoid and lachrymal bones. The molars and second premolars 

 lost and alveolus absorbed. 



No. 2003. Nasal bones almost nil. Ostitis of the bones of the vertex, evidently syphilitic 

 inflammation of childhood. Coronal suture wide, low at stephanion. Lambdoidal suture very large, 

 wide, coarse, and open. Wormian bones present. A rudiment of transverse occipital suture present 

 on both sides. Marked symmelrical convexity seen below the frontotemporal crest. 



No. 2000. Nasal bones compressed, narrow, large, depression on left frontal bone apparently 

 the seat of a syphilitic gumma. 



No. 1957. Much diseased, apparently from syphilitic ostitis; ethmoidal suture broad and 

 coarsely lobate. Front teeth knocked out, probably post mortem. After loss of molar teeth, instead 

 of the customary absorption of alveolus a hyperostosis set in. 



