60 THE OSTEOLOGY AND I\IYOLOGY 



The malar, which is a large, stout hone, forms tlie greater part of the zygoma. Tn 

 general form it is a little arched, a little curved outward, compressed, expanded vertically, 

 and with extensive, very oblique sutural terminations. The anterior extremity chiefly unites 

 with the maxilla by overlapping; but its extreme point is received into a slight pit in the 

 latter bone, while the extremity of the zygomatic process of the maxilla is firmly wedged 

 in a similar but larger depression in the malar itself The suture is thus made remarkably 

 strong. The posterior extremity of the bone is more irregular. A thin, scale-like lamina is 

 appressed against the inside of the squamosal : the bone (hen continues, by its stout under 

 border, to the glenoid cavity — its extremity being cupped to become continuous with the 

 articulating surface. The lower margin of the shaft of the malar is concave, and presents a 

 well marked, oblique bevelling for masseteric attachment. The upper margin is straighter, 

 but is anteriorly cut away a little to afford a slight concavity, which is the lower margin of 

 the ])ony rim of the orbit; and, still further forward, is broken by articulation with the 

 lachrymal. The obtuse posterior termination of the bone gives a partial wall to the front of 

 the glenoid cavity. 



The palatine, though singularly irregular in contour, and curiously wedged in be- 

 tween several bones, can always be detached entire from its connections. It is essentially 

 composed of three plates or processes. The orbital forms a great part of the inner wall of 

 the cavity of that name, completed by the frontal and lachrymal. It is an excessively thin, 

 delicate, osseous scale, nearly vertical, with a gently arched upper border, by which it be- 

 strides, as it were, the contiguous border of the frontal, part over-, part under-lapping. A 

 large foramen obliquely perforates the middle of the base of this upright lamina. An ex- 

 tremely attenuated sharp-pointed spicula of bone forms a horizontal process directly back- 

 wards, lying closely appressed upon the inner surface of the spheno-pterapophysis. This 

 process augments what would otherwise be a slight spheno-palatine articulation. Its base 

 gives off a narrow flange-like lamina of bone, projecting horizontally inward, serving to 

 define the entrance to the posterior nares. The palatal process may be taken as the main 

 body of the bone. This is transversely expanded, and sufficiently thickened to form the 

 posterior termination of the bony palate. Its posterior margin is especially stout, and di- 

 rectly transverse, forming an acute angle with the lateral border. The inner border is ap- 

 posed to its fellow of the opposite side. The anterior border is very irregular. Beside 

 interlocking by semi-squamous suture with the maxilla, it is further broken and interrupted 

 by a deep notch — the posterior margin of the largest palatal aperture ; and another, more 

 posterior and external, similarly encloses, with the maxilla, a second foramen. A large 

 quadrilateral aperture exists wholly within the palatine, in front, near the median line ; and 

 there is a very minute perforation close to its posterior margin. 



With the exception of the tympanies, and ossicula audit us, the pterygoids are the 

 smallest and most delicate of the cranial bones, and their connection with the skull is, if 

 possible, even looser ; it is almost impossible to preserve them in situ. They are exces- 

 sively thin and fragile laminoe, inserted, by their longest edge, into the slight groove be- 

 tween the posterior prolongation of the palatines and the sphenoidal pterapophyses, nearly 

 vertical in position, abutting anteriorly, by their enlarged extremities, against the termi- 

 nation of the bony palate. The presence of these flimsy little bones would seem to be 

 merely in obedience to morphological law ; they can subserve little, if any, teleological pur- 

 pose. I do not comprehend the statement (Owen, Comp. Anat. ii, p. 346) that the ptery- 



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