Page:Antiquity of Man as Deduced from the Discovery of a Human Skeleton.djvu/11

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
ANTIQUITY OF MAN.
5

the sinuses, again strongly convex, to the root of the nasals, which have coalesced with each other and become anchylosed to the frontal bone.

The frontal sinuses are prominent, each in length 1 inch, in breadth near their lower mesial ends half an inch, with an interval of 8 millim.; the prominences curve upward and outward; their surface is roughened by small irregular depressions; their broad, smooth, convex, mesial ends enter into the formation of the superorbital border, which is here not produced. The ordinary ridge-like upper border begins, and more abruptly on the left side, 14 millim. from the fronto-maxillary suture, the ridge expanding to a broader convex outer termination of the superorbital border. In the right orbit the ridge, beginning at the same distance from the suture, also broadens to the upper and outer angle of that border; but there is seen an irregular indent, as if from some blow received during life. Between the two portions of the ridge is a shallow superorbital notch, double on the left side; there is no foramen. The transverse diameter of the orbit is 11/2 inch. One inch extent of the orbital roof is preserved on the left side, about half that extent on the right.

The least external breadth of the frontal bone behind the orbits is 31/2 inches. The length of the frontal from the end of the sagittal suture to the nasals, following the curve, is 5 inches. There are no partial prominences of the frontal answering to those specified anthropotomically as "eminences" in modern European skulls. The greatest breadth of the frontals at the outer ends of the coronal suture is 41/4 inches. A well-marked "temporal ridge"