MUNI7Z—MC GEE] OPERATION ON LINEAR FRACTURE 45 
CRANIUM 16 
(Plates XXXTTT, XXXNTV) 
This is a mummified head, in excellent condition for examination, 
and of special interest in that it reveals in part the incisions through 
the scalp made in connection with the principal operation. The skull 
is one of the largest of the series, with the customary rugose attach- 
ments and stout tendons. The teeth are fairly mature (the left poste- 
rior molar is lacking), indicating early maturity. In addition to the 
lesions connected with the operation, there is a deep scratch on the left 
side of the frontal bone, extending from 32 to 57 mm. above the orbit, 
and an extensive scar, some 30 mm. wide by 50 high, on the right side 
of the same bone, extending from the coronal suture halfway to the 
orbit, together with a few minor scratches; all of these marks appar- 
ently recording recovered wounds. 
The complex and elaborate operation was located by an extensive 
wound, chiefly a linear fracture, extending from the median line of the 
occipital through the lower angle of the right parietal to the temporo- 
parietal suture, along this suture for 20 mm., thence obliquely down- 
ward through the temporal bone to a point just within the zygoma, 
and thence upward and forward entirely across the temporal bone and 
half way to the margin of the left orbit; the fracture being 155 mm. in 
length measured directly on the surface of the skull, and about 200mm. 
measured along its meandering course. The incision in the scalp began 
in the center of the back-head, and was carried well down over the 
occipital to a point apparently somewhat below the extremity of the 
fracture, and thence along the fracture to a point on the temporal bone 
near the posterior margin. The tissues were then apparently pushed 
aside and crumpled into irregular masses, that on the right of the 
incision being particularly thick. Work was then begun on the bone, 
apparently in random fashion; it would seem probable that the first 
incisions were the three nearly vertical cuts in the occipital. The deep- 
est of these is about 37 mm. in length, and is carried into the diploe 
without penetrating the inner table. It is oblique V-shape in cross- 
section, with the usual attenuated extremities, the lower revealing a 
number of scratches. Parallel with it is a shallow incision of similar 
character, 22 mm. long and perhaps 2 mm. deep, not penetrating the 
outer table. Nearly parallel with these is a similar incision 35 mm. long 
and 3 mm. deep, just penetrating the outer table in its center. The 
upper extremity curves rather sharply to the left (though this does not 
clearly appear in plate XXXIv), while the lower extremity divides into 
deep scratches of the usual character, also veering toward the left. 
There is no indication that these deflections toward the extremities of 
the incision were intentional, and everything to indicate that they rep- 
resented a series of slips of the tool occasioned by inequalities in the 
surface of the bone. Evidently these incisions were exploratory, and 
