An inquiry into the variations of the human skull, particularly in the antero-posterior direction / by John Cleland ; communicated by Allen Thomson.

  • Cleland, John, 1835-1924.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the variations of the human skull, particularly in the antero-posterior direction / by John Cleland ; communicated by Allen Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    somewhat open suture was the point taken for measurement, in adult skulls the rough line was chosen which seems to form the limit between the two hones. In fact the writer supposed, in common with anatomists gene rally, that this line was the mark of the obliterated suture, but afterwards, suspecting the accuracy of this view, made a special examination and found that it was really the mark of attachment of the pharynx to the sphenoid hone, and that the position of the spheno-occipital suture W'as slightly further back, and disappeared without leaving any trace. Besides the positions of the points on the skull already mentioned, it was necessary that another should bo registered to indicate the extent of the anterior cranial fossa. For this purpose the outer edge of the foramen opticum was chosen, tlie needle being rested on it as far up as possible. It is quite true that a point in the mesial section would have been somewhat preferable to this, especially as the position of the foramen opticum varies a little in height in its relation to the floor of the anterior cranial fossa, but the point chosen has suited sufficiently well, and was the best which could be got in the circumstances. The various points now indicated being marked on ruled paper and joined by means of straight lines, a diagram is produced on which it is easy to measure a great variety of lines and angles. The measurements on which the present communication is founded have been made from such diagrams, and the lines and angles measured are indicated by descriptive names. In making any series of craniographic observations, it is desirable not merely to select carefully the measurements to be registered, but to determine in what position the skulls shall be placed for the sake of comparing their outlines; and in the present instance, as it was proposed to measure by vertical and horizontal distances, it was natural to attempt establishing a criterion by which a skull might be placed precisely as it had been during life when the person stood in the erect posture. On looking, however, at the numerous methods of placing the skull adopted by different observers, it is impossible not to see that we now touch on a most unsatisfactoiy part of the subject, and a fruitful source of error. This will appear more evidently in the sequel; meanwhile it is suffi- cient to state that all the plans proposed are arbitrary, and if any one of them be true, it has at least not been proved to be so. In the Anatomical Museum of the Queen’s College, Galway, are placed the skulls of two criminals (skulls 49 and 50) with casts of the features taken immediately after death by Dr. Ckoker King, at that time the Pro- fessor of Anatomy and Physiology; and on comparing the skulls with the casts, it is clearly noticeable that they are not placed in the position which they occupied in the erect posture, and when looking directly forwards during life, by following any of the plans which have been recommended, or by using the rule which has been adopted in the present inquiiy. In all probability the skull does not possess any two points which in every instance lie in one vertical plane, or one in front of the other in a horizontal plane ; and it is quite likely that it Avill always remain impossible to determine from the characters of a skull what was its precise position in the erect posture of the body. But
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