TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 129 



obliteration of the sutures, wliicli was congenital, or at least liad occurred in tlie 

 earliest period of life. This constitutes true si/nostosis, wliich, when affecting- the 

 parietals, produces the abnormal long' and narrow skull known as scapliocephalus. 

 i'^acts were adduced which appeared to prove that the dolichocephalous Britons, 

 in common with other dolichocephalous peoples, were much more liable to synos- 

 tosis of the parietals than the brachycephalous races ; and that when it occurred it 

 resulted in an exaggeration of the elongate form natural to the race. 



The author referred to the iinding in a long barrow in Wiltshire, from which 

 fourteen skeletons had been taken, of a very much elongated scaphocephalic skiUl, 

 which was marked by the perfect obliteration of the sagittal suture, while the 

 coronal and all the lateral sutures were open. It was that of a young man, and 

 evidently not a case of premature senile obliteration. After speaking of the result 

 of discoveries in Clloucestershire and in other parts of England, Dr. Thurnam gave 

 a description of an elongate ancient Britisli skull, found at Charlcomb, near Bath, 

 the transverse depression of which had been thouglit to be caused by the wearing 

 of a particidar description of head-dress. 



In repl}' to an inquiry, L)r. Thurnam said his observations did not bear out the 

 impression that the most ancient race of this country was of the same tj'pe with 

 the brachycephalous one often supposed to have been once spread o\"er the whole of 

 Northern Europe. The theory was not well sustained, inasmuch as our oldest skulls 

 were very long and naiTow, whereas in Lapland and Eiumark they were the reverse. 



On a Sui)plementarij Si/stem of Nutrient Arteries for the Lungs. 

 By WiLLi.Iii TuENER, M.B., F.li.S.E. 



In this paper the author described the arterial plexus situated on the side of the 

 pericardium beneath the mediastinal pleura. It was formed by the junction of a 

 number of slender, elongated, thread-like arteries, derived fi-om the pericardiac, 

 mediastinal, and phrenic branches of the internal mammary artery, with each other 

 and with numerous line branches derived from the trunks of the intercostal arte- 

 ries. The plexus so formed consisted of a wide and irregular meshwork, and served 

 to constitute, in the antero-posterior direction, an inosculating medium between the 

 arteries of the anterior and posterior thoracic walls, whilst inferiorly it inosculated 

 with the arteries of the diaphragm. From it also a number of slender thread-like 

 arteries passed to the lung, some in front of its root, others behind, and others be- 

 tween the layers of the ligamentum latum pulmonis. Through the agency of this 

 subplem-al mediastinal plexus, an arterial communication is thus established between 

 the vessels of the lung and the arteries which supply the wall of the chest with 

 blood. 



The paper is printed in extenso in the ' British and Foreign Medico-Chiriu-gical 

 Review,' January 1865. 



On Cranial Deformities — Triyonoeeplialus. 

 By "William Titkner, M.B., F.E.S.E. 



In this paper a peculiar form of head was described, in which the frontal eminences 

 were completely absent, and, in consequence, the forehead above the eyebrows 

 and orbits was tlattened or even concave. In the middle line, however, the fore- 

 head projected forwards and formed a sort of beak, narrow below at the root of the 

 nose, but swelling out laterally at the line of the hair. From above, the head looked 

 broadly ovate, or even somewhat triangular, the apex being at the forehead, the 

 rounded base at the occiput. The peculiar shape of the head was noticed, in the 

 case described, at the time of birth ; the child, now between hve and six years old, 

 was well-grown and intelligent. The head evidently corresponded to the form 

 termed Triyonoeeplialus by Professor Welcker, of Halle. The author argued that 

 the production of this form of head was due to a fusion of the two centres of 

 ossification of the frontal bone, and consequent premature obliteration of the frontal 

 suture. 



The paper is printed in extenso in the ' Natural History Review,' January 1865, 



1864. 9 



