REMAINS, FROM ARKANSAS AND LOUISIANA. 207 
The spinous processes in the collection under examination offer numerous irreg- 
ularities, being sometimes unusually developed. The variations in this particular 
structure, though of no great importance, will well repay a separate thorough study. 
A feature of frequent occurrence in skulls of Indians, as well as of whites, is 
the projections of bone arising on one side from the spinous process or the vicinity 
thereof, and on the other from the superior or inferior part of the external pterygoid 
plate. Occasionally these processes join and give rise to a pterygo-spinous or 
pterygo-sphenoidal foramen. Тһе significance of these structures, notwithstanding 
the fact that they have long been well known to anatomists, and are recognized as 
being formed by ossification of fibrous bands connecting the different points, is not 
yet so clear as might be desired. 
In the Arkansas and Louisiana crania a greater or lesser tendency toward the 
formation of the inferior pterygo-spinous foramen was observed, but other condi- 
tions, as indicated below, were likewise noted. 
PTERYGO-SPINOUS FORAMINA,* 
| ARKANSAS LOUISIANA 
| Males | Females | Males | Females 
| | | 
Тепдепсу to su- | | | 
perior pterygo- | 
spinous fora- | 
men, both sides 3 | 0 0 0 
Tendency to in- 
ferior pterygo- 
spinous fora- | | 
теп: | | 
Right 1 | 0 | 1 | $ 
Left | 1 0 | 0 | 1 
Both sides | 0 0 | 2 | 5 
Inferior pterygo- 255.119, right 2; left 0 255.115, right half; 255.095, right nearly 
i for- four-fifths left nearly complete complete; and ten- 
amen from | denc 
three-fifths to | side to superior for- 
nearly com- | 
plete | | 
| 255.141, right three- 255.211, right three- 255.105, right nearly 
| fifths; left four- || fifths; left three- complete; left nearly 
5 | | complete 
255.152, right ?; left 255.215, right nearly 
nearly complete complete; left near- 
ace complete | 
217, right two- 
thirds; left nearly. 
E = 
Inferior foramen 255.127, right com- 255,143, pterygo-sphe- 255,201, pterygo-spin- | 0 
complete lete; left nearly  noidal complete on ous complete on left | 
complete | left (tendency on (slight tengency on 
| ЕГІ gh | 
| | 255.218, pterygo-sphe- | 
| | noidal complete on | 
rkansas he old collections in the National Museum, the condition of the go 
spinous Fa, i о ar Ара rim M. А ж? > v ,M.2, F. 1; tendency to inferior, M. 9, F. 4; Reed amd nn 
plete, M. r, F. 0; inferior lateral (pterygo-sphenoidal) complete, M.o, Ë. r. 
Defects of ossification in the floor of the auditory meatus.—Of such defects, or 
dehiscences (Hyrtl), which are very frequent and often large in the case of Indians 
