286 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vou. XXXVI. 
would then be safe, I think; to consider it a remnant of a partly 
occluded complete suture. Tarenetzkij would distinguish the 
incisures from remnants of complete divisions by the greater 
height of the malar in which a complete division had existed 
than that of its mate, but such a criterium, though theoretically 
seemingly correct, meets in practice with numerous difficulties. 
Not many malars, even though entirely free from divisions, are 
exactly equal. The presence of partial divisions, especially 
when large, is probably not, without influence on the size of 
the bone. Where a complete suture had existed but became 
early subject to partial obliteration, the size of the malar was 
undoubtedly less affected than in the cases where the suture 
remained patent until more advanced life. Finally, where a 
bilateral complete division existed, if obliteration on the two 
sides proceeded simultaneously, the malars would be liable to 
be of a very nearly equal size, and the indications of a complete 
suture would be absent; or, had the occlusion proceeded with 
much difference in time, the two malars would be unequal, and 
we should be predisposed to consider only the incisures in the 
larger malar as the remnants of a complete suture. 
Actual measurements bear out well the uncertainty of basing 
any conclusions upon the difference in the size of the malars. 
Taking at random one hundred skulls of Peruvians of both 
sexes, in whom both malars were well preserved and the malar 
articulations were free from any signs of occlusion, I measured 
the dimension of the malar mostly affected by a transverse 
division, namely, the height of the body of the bone. The 
measurements were taken with a sliding compass at the middle 
of the bone, parallel with the malo-maxillary suture. Among 
the one hundred skulls there were seventy-two in which the 
malars showed no division, sixteen in which both malars showed 
a posterior incisure,? four in which the right, and seven in which 
the left, malar presented a posterior incisure, and one in which 
both malars showed both posterior and anterior incisures, The 
results of the measurements, which hardly need spre comment, 
will be found i in the table on the opposite. page. 
1 Tarenétzkij.- Mim. de l'Acad. Imp. de Sei. de St. 5e EUM tome xxxvii, 
No. 13 (1890), p. 39. 18 Only lineal incisures above 1 mm. in length considered. 
