MR. YOUATT’s VETERINARY LECTURES. 
193 
the horizontal position of the abdomen of the quadruped, the 
pelvis may be larger and the passage more direct, and the labour 
easier, without danger of previous abortion; but because the young 
quadruped, at least among graminivorous animals, although not 
abandoned at the moment of birth, is yet made to shift a great 
deal for himself, and is exposed to considerable danger; and all 
these bones will afford so many distinct nuclei for the more rapid 
formation of bone, to defend this most important of all organs. 
I will describe each of these bones separately. 
The frontal bones occupy that portion of the head and face 
which is called the forehead. They are most irregularly shaped, 
and difficult to describe. We find one on either side of the fore¬ 
head, and they are united by a long straight suture: this suture, 
however, is not of the same character through its whole extent. 
It is dove-tailed above—that kind of union which the mechanic 
w ould adopt to unite, in the firmest manner, two portions of a sub¬ 
stance that is hard and not very elastic. This dove-tailed suture is 
found only on the upper part, where the frontal bones cover the 
brain. Soon after the frontal sinuses commence the suture is of 
a much simpler kind, and not so strong. It is a mere approxi¬ 
mation of the edges of the two frontals. Then we have, at first 
starting, a proof of design. We have an illustration of that con¬ 
trivance, and adaptation to circumstances, which will again and 
again, and again, be brought before us in more interesting points 
of view. Peculiar strength of union is given where an impor¬ 
tant organ is to be defended,—the suture is intricate and la¬ 
boured ; where less important parts are to be defended, it is of 
a far simpler character. 
This suture is termed the frontal, and is a continuation of the 
nasal suture. 
The Lecturer then described the connexion of the frontals 
w ith the surrounding bones—w ith the parietal above by an irre¬ 
gular curved line—first receiving a slight projection of the pari¬ 
etal, and then encroaching on the parietal; and the suture at 
this place, betw een the frontal and the parietal, being peculiarly 
adapted for strength -a squamous suture—one bone overlap¬ 
ping the other, affording a double defence, and because the 
Drain lay underneath this spot—another illustration of design. 
He then traced a squamous process of the frontal ascending 
superiorly and posteriorly between the parietal and temporal 
bones ; the frontal then taking a sudden direction downward 
into the temporal, skirting the squamous portion of the tem¬ 
poral bone in the remarkable depression above the eve, or great 
orbital fossa. He spoke of this pit as indicating, with some 
considerable latitude, the age of the horse. The coronoid pro¬ 
cess ol the lower jaw played within it, and a dense membrane 
i 
