The Toner lectures ... / by Harrison Allen.

  • Allen, Harrison, 1841-1897.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Toner lectures ... / by Harrison Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Vessel-grooves within the nasal chamber.—The nasal bone is often marked with a groove which extends the entire length of the sur- face within the nasal chamber and lies near the maxilla-nasal suture. A similar groove is often found on the ascending process of the maxilla near and parallel to the same suture. The temporal ridge, as it is crossed by the coronal suture, is occa- sionally depressed, or the line of the ridge may be said to exhibit a fault at the point of section of the coronal. This arrangement is seen oftener in the skulls of negroes than those of other races.^ The temporal ridges divide the dome of the cranium (t. e., the parts included in the sides and vertex of the brain case) into the natural divisions within which the characters of the minor details are distinctive. The vertex between the ridges is almost uniformly marked by more numerous diploic openings (aperturm emissarise). The vessel-grooves are absent. In some examples the strise which radiate from the tubera medianward and backward are retained and distinguish the adult cranium.^ In narrow “ill-filled” skulls the temporal ridge may overlie the parietal tuber, as I have observed in a cranium of a convict, or greatly underlie it, as is seen in No. 77 of the College of Physicians collection. Among the processes of bone which were noticed in the course of the examination may be mentioned the following: A number of small but stout spines, each measuring a millimetre or two millimetres in length, which were appended to the frontal portion of the temporal ridge and directed downward ; the spines 1 The following are the numbers of negro crania in A. N. S. showing this peculiarity: No. 912, to a marked degree; also 975, 1102, 920, 994, 1094, 918, 907, 902, 913. The ridge is well seen in No. 1300, Sandwich Islander; 1064, German; 207, Puget Sound; 133, Cossack; 89, Adrian; 99, Armenian (the four last named are in the College of Physicians). 2 The temporal ridges often limit the distribution of morbid processes and the changes due to old age. The diameter of the vertex measured between the two temporal ridges varies greatly in individuals. In tapeinocephalic and in all long, narrow crania the distance is smaller than in other types.