REMAINS, FROM ARKANSAS AND LOUISIANA. 199 
other hand, the simpler forms of the sutures are more frequent in the females in 
both of the groups. No regular relation has been observed between the grade of 
serration of the sutures and the size of the skull, though all the specimens in which 
the serration is best developed are large. Perhaps a very large series of skulls 
might produce more definite results. 
Prerions.—lu all the crania, with one exception, the pterions are of the H 
type, z. e., the articulation is spheno-parietal. The exception occurs in female skull 
255.213, from Louisiana, where on the left side the temporal squama forms a nar- 
row articulation with the frontal. No relation is apparent between the width of 
the spheno-parietal articulation and the sex or the size of the skull. As to locality, 
the male skulls from Louisiana average broader pterions than those from Arkansas, 
but the female crania from the two localities present approximately the same con- 
ditions. The details are as follows :' 
ARKANSAS LOUISIANA 
Pterion H-form | Males Females Males Females 
| | 
Broad | 1 | 2 6 2 
Medium | 6 | 4 | 10 11 
Narrow | 3 | 1 | 0 2 
Occluston.—The order of external synostosis in the cranial sutures shows а 
number of interesting features as well as numerous irregularities. (See table, pp. 
200, 201.) 
The details show that, dorsally, synostosis begins in the majority of these 
crania іп the coronal suture, and is followed in a short time by а similar process in 
the sagittal, temporo-occipital, and nasal sutures. The process next manifests itself 
in the greatest degree in the spheno-parietal and spheno-frontal articulations, and 
lastly in the lambdoid suture. The temporo-parietal articulation was found patent 
in all the specimens. 
The table shows that there are numerous individual irregularities in the ap- 
pearance and progress of the synostoses. In this particular series these irregulari- 
ties are doubtless augmented by the effect of the artificial deformations. 
As to localities in the different sutures at which synostosis begins, it was 
noticed that in the coronal it is almost invariably in the portions below and at the 
temporal ridges, following which points of obliteration appear along the median 
third of the suture; in the sagittal the most frequent points of beginning of the 
obliteration are the obelion and the summit; in the lambdoid it begins at various 
points in the median third and advances downward on each side; in the temporo- 
sphenoidal the parts that co-ossify earliest are the inferior portions ; and in the nasal 
suture obliteration usually begins at its distal extremity. This fairly agrees with 
the results of observations on American crania from other localities.? The order of 
5 ulls from the old collections іп the National Museum, 
the и im "P P Form rod, M. 0, F. 2; medium, M. 6, F. 5; sub-medium, 
mo үз ык Сашка to tlie Physical Anthropology of California,” Berkeley, 1906, 
University of California Publications, Vol. 4, No. 2, table 5. 
