360 AVERAGE WEIGHT OF THE BRAIN IN THE 



synostotic skulls. From what has been stated on page 32, it appears that in all of 

 the latter, there described, the increased length of the head is chiefly due to the ex- 

 tension of the parietal bones from before backwards, the frontal and occipital being 

 but slightly angulated. In the Neanderthal skull the length of the parietals is only 

 115 mm.,* 9 mm. heloio the average, while in the synostotic crania it is 142 mm., or 

 18 mm. above the average. How far this has any real bearing on the nature of the 

 deformity of the Neanderthal cranium will depend upon the extent to which, when 

 large collections are examined, the extension of the parietals and consequent length- 

 ening of the sagittal suture is found to be a constant attendant on synostosis." p. 34. 

 In the words here quoted Prof Wyman seems to have employed the term synosto- 

 tic in the sense as if there were but one kind of synostosis, — that of the parietals, — 

 and as if the dolichocephalic and scaphocephalic deformation were the only or the 

 chief deformation resulting from synostosis. Synostoses are various, as they are the 

 results of the premature ossification of all the different sutures between all the differ- 

 ent bones of the cranium. Hence it will appear that neither dolichocephalism nor 

 scaphocephalism can be regarded as the general results of synostosis. Brachycephal- 

 ism is a regular and constant result of synostosis, just as well as dolichocephalism. 

 When transverse sutures are ossified, such as the coronal, lambdoidal, and the 

 spheno-occipital synchondrosis, hracliycephalism is the necessary and immediate con- 

 sequence. Still, it is synostosis of the parietals which has probably attracted most 

 attention. The third section in Prof. Lucae's classification of synostotic crania is 

 Bracliycepliali, of which he defines different species. Prof Virchow had previously 

 formed a section of Bracliycepliali. So that it is scarcely sufficient to use the term 

 synostosis as if there were but interparietal synostosis. Explanation and definition 

 should be appended to make the meaning of the writer obvious. The next point de- 

 serving attention is that synostosis, in the restricted sense to which Prof. Wyman 

 seems to apply it, is usually attended with an elongation of the parietal bones. This 

 entered into Prof. Lucae's definition of it. His words are : " IV. Stenocepliali, 

 Narrow-heads. Macrocephali {Dolichocephali), Long-heads. Synostosis of the sagittal 

 suture, with compensatory development of the parietals, in length. "t Prof Wyman 

 shows that in the very curious skulls he has described and depicted the parietal 

 bones are beyond the normal length. It is most probable that in all scaphocephalic 



* There is no room to question Dr. Wyman's correctness, yet the misrepresentations of this skull are 

 general, and it is almost necessary to say what figure or cast is made use of. The coronal suture, one of the 

 points for this measurement, is quite obvious in many of the engravings of this skull. It has been added. See 

 Prof. Carl Vogt's figures. Prof Busk's figures. Prof Huxley's figures. Prof Wm. King's figures. In the figure 

 given from the photograph of the fragment itself by Prof Landzert (Archiv. flir Anthropologia, Band ii, S. 13), 

 the coronal suture is totally absent, and Dr. Fuhlrott's statement respecting the original is, that it is only ob- 

 scurely perceptible. 



f Od Synostotic Crania amoug Aboriginal Races of Man. By J. Barnard Davis, 1865, p. 8. 



