CRANIOLOGY OF THE PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND. 591 



one on the left ; as a rule the parieto-sphenoid articulation was broad. Eight crania had 

 small Wormian bones in the lambdoidal suture. 



Variations in Ossification. 



The skulls examined were regarded as 117 males and 59 females. In considering the 

 variations in ossification the sutures naturally call for special attention. In a number 

 of crania the sutures were in process of ossification, and in a smaller proportion 

 they were, owing to age, to a considerable extent obliterated. No specimen showed 

 characters which indicated that a premature closure of the sutures had taken place. 

 In twenty-three crania, sixteen males and seven females, the frontal suture was distinct, 

 and the metopic condition was present in 13 per cent, of the series. It furnished an 

 example of the persistence during adult life of the foetal division of the bone into 

 right and left lateral halves. 



The skull from Dunbar (p. 557) showed on the left side an intraparietal suture which 

 divided the parietal bone into an upper and a lower segment. It is probable that in 

 many, if not in every skull, the parietal bone ossifies from two centres, an upper and a 

 lower, and the presence of this suture is a persistent condition of the plane of separation 

 between these centres. 



The infraorbital suture persisted in a number of the crania ; but an example of a 

 division of a malar bone into two parts by a suture was not noticed. 



A number of examples of sutural bones was recognised. As usual, the lambdoidal 

 suture was their most frequent seat, and no fewer than forty-nine crania had Wormian 

 bones in this suture : in two specimens they were set obliquely so as to form a shelf, 

 which projected the occipital squama backwards, and gave increased length to the 

 cranium. In two skulls an intraparietal bone was present in the parieto-occipital region. 



The pterion is a part of the cranium to which anthropologists have given much 

 attention. The series showed every variety from a broad sphenoido-parietal suture to 

 one so pointed that the ali-sphenoid barely touched the parietal angle. The frontal 

 articulated in four crania with the right squamous-temporal, in two with the left, and in 

 one skull the temporo-frontal articulation was present on both sides. In ten crania an 

 epipteric bone was present in the right pterion, in seven in the left, and in eight on 

 both sides. One skull had a sutural bone in the squamous suture. In two crania a 

 small sutural bone occupied the region of the anterior fontanelle, and three others had 

 separate ossifications further back in the sagittal suture. Two crania had each a small 

 bone in the left half of the coronal suture. 



In no skull was the occipital bone seen to possess a third or middle condyl. Three 

 had small par-occipital processes, and in several the under surface of the jugal process 

 was tuberculated. In one skull the spine of the sphenoid articulated with the external 

 pterygoid plate of the same bone, and enclosed a pterygo-spinous foramen ; and an 



