On the Vomer in Man and the Marnmalia. 
93 
framework of that bone. On the upper aspect there is a sharp 
angle between the laminas that lie against the cartilaginous 
septum and their lateral expansions, and the former are pro- 
longed in many animals beyond the angle. Where the eth- 
moid is joined by the ethmo-vomerine lamina — for so we shall 
call the expansion just described — it forms the upper part of 
the nasal foramen of the palate bone, in human anatomy 
called the spheno-palatine foramen. In the lamb there is not 
much development of the vomer as a mesial plate below the 
level of the groove. It articulates inferiorly by a rough 
sutured edge with the superior maxillary bones, and in front 
of that its scooped anterior extremity lies for about an eighth 
of an inch or so on the groove formed by the mesial processes of 
the intermaxillary boiies — the universal method of articulation 
of the mammalian vomer with the intermaxillary bones (fig. 1). 
The vomer of the cat is proportionally less elongated than 
that of the sheep, but like it has little development of the 
mesial plate beneath the vomerine groove. It articulates by 
a rough surface with the superior maxillary and palate bones, 
but with the intermaxillary bones by an elongation forward 
upon them of the laminge which bound the groove. These 
lamina are connected towards their back part with the lateral 
masses of the ethmoid, exactly as is the case in the sheep ; 
and at the point where the vomer passes into the ethmoid, the 
latter presents a minute orbital surface, which lies between 
the two ascending processes of the palate bone, and completes 
by a point in its inferior margin the almost perfect nasal 
foramen of that bone. The sphenoid process of the palate- 
bone lies between the ethmo-vomerine laminae and the ptery- 
goid bone. The central plate of the ethmoid does not at all 
touch the vomer in early life, but the cartilaginous septum of 
the nose passes back beneath it to the presphenoid bone. 
It may be mentioned at once that the nasal foramen of the 
palate bone is completed by the ethmoid in all the animals 
examined. 
The relations of the vomer in the fox and the pig are the 
same as in the cat. In the case of the hedgehog, as in the 
sheep, it does not articulate with the palate bones. In the 
horse also it does not articuhite with the paLite bones. But the 
