23 



of the posterior part of the parietal region of the skull, extending a little way 

 into the occipital region. The outer table of the skull has been smashed in for 

 an extent of five inches in the long diameter, and three inches transversely : 

 several of the bony fragments have exfoliated, and left wide irregular apertures 

 leading into the large air-sinuses which are continued from the frontal to the 

 occipital region. The margins of the broken bone, both of the outer table and 

 the exposed edges of the vertical sinuous walls, extending between the outer and 

 inner tables, are rounded off by the absorbent action, and are thickened irregu- 

 larly by new ossific depositions which shoot out in the form of jagged exostoses 

 from the posterior and narrower end of the fractured surface. The inner table 

 of the skull has not been injured by the blow which caused such destruction to 

 the outer plate ; and the integrity of the cranial cavity, and the safety of the 

 contained cerebral organ, may be ascribed to the singular extension and de- 

 velopment of the air-cells, which raise the outer considerably above the vitreous 

 table, along the whole upper plane of the skull. 



The questions which naturally arise as to the cause of these remarkable in- 

 juries, and the circumstances under which they were received, will be subse- 

 quently discussed ; at present it need only to be observed that they must have 

 occurred some time before the death of the animal. Sufficient time has elapsed 

 to allow of the complete healing of one of the injuries, which may have been 

 received at a different and antecedent period to the second ; and notwithstanding 

 the greater extent and more dangerous position of the latter fracture, directly 

 over the brain, the animal, though probably stunned and temporarily disabled 

 by its reception, has recovered itself, and lived sufficiently long to allow of con- 

 siderable progress in the usual reparative processes. 



Base-view*. — The under surface of the skull agrees in its general form with 

 the upper, presenting a median constriction at the interspace of the zygomatic 

 arches and expanding at both extremities : behind the posterior expansion, formed 

 by the lower terminations of the occipital ridge, the base of the skull contracts to 

 form the condyles, which project backwards and a Uttle downwards. The convex 

 surface of each condyle is inchned a little outwards ; it describes more than half 

 a circle in the vertical direction, and the quarter of a long ellipse in the trans- 



* Hate IV. 



