MUNIZ—MC GEE] OPERATION ON STELLATE FRACTURE 47 
CRANIUM 17 
(Plates XX XV, XXXVT) 
This is a mummified head, with the scalp remaining on the right side 
back of the coronal suture and over half of the occiput, while shreds 
of tissue remain elsewhere; the bones are perfectly preserved and fatty 
throughout. The skull is hardly so thick and strong as the average of 
the collection, though the attachments are rugose. The teeth are well 
developed (the left posterior molar is lacking) and the sutures fairly 
united, indicating rather early maturity; two interparietal bones (the 
smaller clearly shown in plate xxxv) interrupt the lambdoid. 
The specimen displays a wound and two or three associated opera- 
tions on the left side. The wound is an irregular splintered fracture, 
apparently centering just below a point about midlength of the tem- 
poro-parietal suture, and 30 or 35 mm. above the auricular meatus. 
The principal fissure traverses the temporal bone, as shown in plate 
XXXxvV, and can be traced in the auricular opening fully 30 mm.; a curvi- 
linear crack some 30 mm. in length crosses this fissure at a large angle 
2 mm. above the origin of the zygoma, dying out anteriorly but 
extending to the suture posteriorly; the third line of fracture evidently 
coincided with the suture for a distance of some 40 mm.; and a fourth 
apparently defined the lower margin of the irregular aperture for a 
length of somewhat over 30 mm. In addition there are traces of 
another radial fissure extending upward and backward from the cen- 
tral point for a distance of 35 mm.; it defines the upper margin of the 
triangular fragment loosened by the curvilinear crack and the fracture 
along the suture, divides the bridge of bone below the circular aper- 
ture, and appears in the specimen (and faintly in the reproduction) on 
the upper posterior side of this aperture. About the center of the 
wound the bone is considerably depressed. 
There were three measurably distinct operations evidently located 
by the wound. The principal operation was that represented by the 
approximately circular aperture, which averages 19 mm. in diameter. 
All about this opening traces of instrumentation appear. The bone is 
striated in various directions, but for the most part concentrically 
about the aperture, showing that the operation was finished by scrap- 
ing or rasping, though whether with or without antecedent incision 
and elevation can not certainly be determined. On the posterior side 
the bone is scraped quite thin, though on the anterior side most of the 
thickness of the inner table forms the margin and is cut through in 
a nearly vertical direction, showing that here at least there was cury- 
ilinear cutting, perhaps subsequent to the scraping. The general 
appearance of the opening and margins suggests that the operation 
was completed to the satisfaction of the operator; but the absence of 
reparative growth and the distinct preservation of the striz produced 
by rasping prove that the victim did not long survive. 
