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[April 17, 1873 
girth of 36 in. ; less will not give him space adequate to 
the full and fair action of the vital organs within, in the 
work upon which he would engage ; less no man of ordi- 
nary stature and fair growth need pass his eighteenth 
year without possessing.” 
In bringing these remarks to a close, we desire heartily 
to congratulate Dr. Morgan on his book, both in concep- 
tion and execution, and also to congratulate University 
oarsmen in having a work of this character dedicated to 
investigations of the doubtful and disputed points of their 
favourite exercise. If he has not succeeded in showing 
that the Putney course is quite free from danger, he has 
shown that it is not so perilous as it was pronounced to 
be,—z.e. not the vza mada which it had been named. To 
the disputants on both sides we would say with the peace- 
loving innkeeper in Silas Marner, “ Ye are both right and 
both wrong ; shake hands and be friends.” 
ARCHIBALD MACLAREN 
THE MAMMALIAN SKULL 
Zur Morphologie des Stiugethier-Schddels, von Joh. Chr. 
Gustav Lucae. With three lithographic plates and 
eight woodcuts, (Frankfort, 1872.) 
acar contribution to the anatomy of the Mammalian 
skull treats chiefly of the comparative proportions 
of those of Carnivora and Ruminants. After quoting Prof. 
Huxley’s dictum on the importance of making longitudinal 
sections of every skull in an ethnological museum, the 
author justly insists upon its applicability to comparative 
osteology ; and begins by a discussion on the true cranio- 
facial axis. He reviews the definitions adopted by other 
writers, and describes it as extending fron the anterior 
margin of the 7. magnum to the F. cecum, thus including 
the basi-occipital, basi-sphenoid, pre-sphenoid, and cribri- 
form plate of the ethmoid bone. He regards it not as a 
mere imaginary line drawn through the centres of these 
links in the chain, but as the actual solid elongated mass 
which they form when the surrounding parts are removed. 
Hence he speaks of the upper surface of the cranio-facial 
axis, or, as he,prefers to call it, the base of the skull, 
turned towaran the brain, and its lower surface turned 
towards the pharynx and face. 
The discrepancies between the different anatomists 
who have written on this subject have been chiefly due to 
the different objects for which the structure of the skull 
has been studied. To the morphologist, guided by a 
knowledge of embryology and comparative anatomy, it 
appears monstrous to include the diameter of a foramen 
as part of the base of the skull, formed of a series of bones 
which agree in their relations and partly in their develop- 
ment with the centra of the vertebrae. On the other hand 
the descriptive zoologist, and especially the ethnologist, to 
whom ‘transcendental anatomy” is apt to appear harsh 
and crabbed, asks fairly enough that he may be allowed 
to fix upon such a base-line as shall give him the most 
useful and convenient method of comparing the shape of 
different skulls. And if the practical physician tries as 
well as he can to ascertain the dimensions of the cranium 
during life, he is obliged to content himself with the best 
base-line he can get, which is probably that from the root 
of the nose to the most hollow part below the occipital 
protuberance.* 
*See an interesting paper by Dr. Gee in the St, Bartholomew Hospital 
Reports for last year. 
Prof. Lucae’s object is a morphological comparison 
between the skulls of man and certain other mammals, 
and for this purpose we think his cranial basis is well 
chosen. It agrees with the “ cranio-facial axis” adopted 
by Prof. Flower in his “ Osteology of the Mammalia” 
(pp. 104, 105), in the chief point in which it differs from 
Huxley’s “ basi-cranial axis” (Journal of Anat. and Phys., 
Nov. 1866, p. 67, and “Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals,” 
p- 23), namely, by the inclusion of the mesethmoid bone, 
And it differs from Prof. Cleland’s “ base-line” (Phil. 
Trans., 1869, p. 122), by the exclusion of the foramen 
magnum, as well as in being an actual mass of bones 
instead of a line drawn for purposes of measurement. 
The most important question is, whether the line ot” 
bones which continues the centre of the vertebrze forward 
should be considered to stop with the pre-sphenoid or no, 
Having passed the basi-sphenoid, with which the noto- 
chord ends, and admitted the pre-sphenoid into the 
cranial axis, there seems no good reason from the deve- 
lopment, the structure, or the relations of the bones, for 
not including in the series the next in order. And this 
must be the mesethmoid : for the claims of the vomer to 
be considered the centrum of a nasal vertebra may be 
put aside, because unlike the rest of the axis it is deve- 
loped from membrane, because it takes no part in sup- 
porting the cerebrospinal axis, and because it is not 
articulated with the frontals or even with the anterior 
end of the pre-sphenoid. 
Having defined the cranial basis, Prof. Lucae proceeds 
to compare the inclination of its four segments to each 
other and to a right line joining its two ends, This line, 
which in man of course will fall de/ow the base of the 
skull, falls adove it in Carnivora, and more or less com- 
pletely zz itin Ungulata. The differences chiefly depend 
on the greater or less inclination of the brain to the 
medulla oblongata, and the more or less horizontal posi- 
tion of the face and hence of the olfactory nerves. Careful 
measurements are given of the dimensions of the seg- 
ments of the cranial axis and of the angles they make 
with each other in six Carnivora and eight Ungulata. 
Next follows a comparison between the vault of the 
cranium and the facial bones in the wolf and antelope 
(Redunca ellipsiprymna), The compact osseous struc- 
ture of the former is contrasted with the more spongy 
character of the latter ; and it is shown how the position 
of the centre of gravity is altered by the great canine 
teeth of the carnivora and the horns of ruminants, A 
short section follows on the changes brought by age; 
and then come measurements of the cranial angles in 
various marine Carnivora, in Rodents, in the pig, barbi- - 
russa, and Hyvax. The last section treats of the skulls 
of monkeys and of man. Here the cranial axis, which 
in the seals is somewhat concave above, in otters almost 
flat, and gradually more bent in Carnivora and in Rumi- 
nants, has become strongly convex above, so as to make 
the cribriform plate and the foramen magnum horizontal 
instead of vertical, while the length of the vault of the 
skull in comparison with its base (as above defined) has 
enormously increased. The remarkable twisting down of 
the face under the cranium in some Ruminants (for it is 
little marked in the deer tribe), which is here noticed, has 
been already well described by Prof. Flower in the work 
above quoted. It is a remarkable character, but certainly 
