447 
of Edinburgh^ Session 1864-65. 
Frontal transverse arc, 12-6 ; parietal, 12-0 ; occipital, 10-6. 
Circumference, 21-3. 
2i, Congenital Deficiencies in the Cranium , — For the opportunity 
of examining the very remarkable skull-cap next described, the 
author was indebted to Professor Maclagan, who, on account of 
some circumstances connected with the death of the person to 
whom it belonged, possessing a medico-legal interest, had had it 
sent him by Dr T. J. Maclagan of Dundee.^' The skull-cap was 
from a woman mt. 25. In the inter-parietal part of the occipital 
bone an oval opening, with a smooth rounded margin, existed in 
the middle line. Its long axis was vertical, and measured one 
inch ; its transverse diameter was a little more than half an inch at 
the widest part. A suture extended upwards from the upper end 
of this opening in the middle line, as far as the superior angle of 
the bone. This hole was, in the recent state, filled up by a mem- 
brane. In the posterior slope of each parietal bone an oval open- 
ing, with a rounded margin, was situated. The long axis of each 
was transverse ; that on the right side i%ths, that on the left y%ths 
of an inch long ; whilst the antero-posterior diameter on the widest 
part, on the right side, was on the left of an inch. 
These openings were filled up in the recent state with a cribriform 
membrane. A suture passed from the inner end of the left parietal 
opening almost transversely inwards for about half an inch, when it 
reached the middle line, and then extended downwards and back- 
wards for inch, as far as the lambdoidal suture, occupying the 
position of the posterior part of the sagittal suture. The right 
parietal opening had no suture proceeding from it, though there 
were appearances as if one had formerly existed. The parietal 
openings by their outer ends were close to elevations in the bones, 
which evidently corresponded to the parietal tubera. 
The inner surface of the skull-cap, in front of the parietal 
openings, was marked by the groove for the superior longitudinal 
sinus along the middle line; opposite these apertures it was deflected, 
and ran close to the inner end of the right parietal opening ; and 
preserving this direction it ran along the right side of the occipital 
opening as far as the internal occipital protuberance; from the 
Proc. Med. Cliir. Soc. Edin. in Edinburgh Medical Journal, May 1865. 
