wood, others upon dung, and others again, upon herbaceous plants. Upon this the authors observe :-" Malgrado le insigni differenze tra "le specie fimicole, lignotili ed erbicole, non crediamo per ora di "distinguerne le specie in sezioni separate." The next genus, Rosellinia (containing Sph. aquila, &c.), differs from Sordaria by characters which some mycologists may think insufficient; and considering the wide divergence of some of the species of Sordaria, it might be contended that that genus should be stretched to include the Roselliniæ.

The well-known genus Ceratostoma requires no comment. The next, Lasiosphæria, is one which is very well-defined. It includes such species as S. ovina, hirsuta, etc., so well characterized by their hairy perithecia, and elongated, flexuose sporidia.

Lasiosphæria is followed by Enchnoa (S. V. S. 393, 410), and this by Cryptosphæria (Grev. pro parte), under which are entered (besides Sph. millepunctata Grev., Sph. cutypa Fr. etc.), Sph. ditopa Fr., and Sph. salicella Fr. According to the characters of Cryptosphæria (see p. 57), the sporidia are the same as in Valsa, where (see p. 32) they are defined as spermatioid, and not exceeding eight in number. This definition would exclude Sph. ditopa Fr., where the sporidia are very numerous, and Sph, salicella Fr., where the sporidia are bilocular.

Sphæria Gnomon Tode, may be taken as the type of the genus Gnomonia, and Rhaphidospora is adopted, as given in S. V. S., p. 401. The remaining genera are Hormospora, Leptosphæria, Sphærella, and Dothidea. Of Hormospora (apparently a very limited genus) we know nothing. Leptosphæria, which includes the caulicolous sphæriæ, with curved septate yellowish sporidia, will probably hold its ground, but of Spherella, which contains Sph. Rusci Wallr., Sph. Rouxii Mont., Sph. intermixta B. and Br. etc., we are more doubtful.

Under Dothidea, the authors cite, as examples, the following species:-D. Ribesia Fr., D. Berberidis DNtrs., D. Sambuci Fr., D. Puccinioides Fr., D. Etrusca DNtrs., D. Rute Mont., and D. Mezerei Fr., suggesting that all species hitherto referred to Dothidea, which differ from the above, ought to be excluded from the genus. They add, "Per ora non siamo in grado di presentare un prospetto "delle specie cui vorremmo stralciate dalle Dothidee ...

66

"crediamo di non andare molto lungi dal vero, seguando due tipi essenziali, intorno a cui si dovranno raccogliere le molte forme di questa coorte di Pirenomiceti, 1. Dothidea Ulmi Fr. ; 2. Mazzantia "Galii Mont."

The limits of this article do not admit of a discussion of this view of the genus Dothidea. To those who may wish to look further into the matter, we recommend a consideration of Dr. Montagne's observations, at pp. 245-7, of his" Sylloge Plantarum Cryptogamarum," and the remarks of Messrs. Berkeley and Broome, under Piggottia astroidea, in Annals of Nat. Hist., Vol. vii. p. 25.

In conclusion we may remark, that, since the appearance of the above work, M. de Notaris has published the first fasciculus of his "Sferiacei Italici," containing a detailed account, with figures, of the Italian species. To this we hope to be able to refer on a future

occasion.

XVIII.-ON CRANIAL DEFORMITIES, AND MORE ESPECIALLY ON THE SCAPHOCEPHALIC SKULL. By William Turner, M.B. (Lond.) F.R.S.E., Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy, University of Edinburgh.*

THE subject of Cranial Deformities is one which has engaged the attention of the Anatomist and Ethnologist from the time of Hippocrates down to the present day. Of late years, especially, much care has been bestowed on the investigation of the causes which may lead to the production of the different kinds of deformity, and various theories have been propounded in explanation of their mode of origin. These theories may conveniently be arranged under four heads.

1st. By artificial means, employed either accidentally or designedly, as by the pressure of bags of sand, flat boards, bandages, etc. 2nd. By pathological changes, as from caries, syphilis, ostitis, exostosis, malum senile, etc.

3rd. By posthumous changes from pressure, action of acids in the soil, etc.

4th. By developmental irregularities or deficiencies, as in the production of Cyclopian and other monsters, and in the premature or retarded union of the cranial bones at their sutures, or synchondroses.

It is not my intention, on this occasion, to discuss the effects

* Read at the Meeting of the British Association at Newcastle, August 29th, 1863.

which might be produced on the shape of the skull by the operation of the whole of the various causes which I have just enumerated, but to restrict myself, in a great measure, to the consideration of the influence which premature or retarded synostosis may exercise in the production of abnormal cranial forms. This theory is one indeed which has only of late years been recognized as possessing any importance, and the facts on which it is based have been studied more by the pathological anatomist than by the ethnologist. But it admits of more extended application than has yet been accorded to it, and I think it not improbable that some of those specimens of crania which have been looked upon as owing the peculiarities of their shape either to artificial pressure, to posthumous distortion, or even to ethnical peculiarities, ought the rather to be referred to it. It is of importance, therefore, in depicting and describing crania, that the state of the various sutural margins should be faithfully rendered, and that the influence exercised upon the shape of the skull by premature or retarded closure of the sutures should be eliminated from the effects produced by other agencies.

That obliteration of the cranial sutures and coalescence of one or more bones of the skull by their margins does at times take place, has long been recognized by anatomists, and there are few Museums which do not possess examples, more especially of cases where this has occurred along the line of the sagittal suture. But sutural obliteration has been generally regarded as a mark of age, and it has been employed, and justly, as one of the characters by which an old skull might be distinguished from that of a young person. Occasional and exceptional instances have also been recorded of the occurrence of sutural ossification at an early period of life, but it is only within the last few years that this premature ossification has been looked upon as capable of producing distortions of the skull. Here and there, indeed,

Cases of premature closure of the sutures in fœtuses and children have been recorded by the following authors :-Otto not only states that congenital synostosis of the frontal suture may occur, but also mentions a case by Lentin of ossification of all the sutures in a child aged 6, and one by Desessarz in a child of 12. Voigtel also quotes the case of a girl, aged 8, in whom ossification of the sagittal and coronal sutures had taken place. Lucæ mentions the union of the frontal and parietal bones in a fœtus. Virchow has seen sagittal synostosis in children 6 to 8 years old. Also complete synostosis of the anterior and posterior sphenoids as well as union of the posterior sphenoid with the great wing on the left side in a new-born child. Also complete sphenoidal synostosis in a Cretin 1 year old, and congenital synostosis of the frontal in a Cyclops. Minchin also has a case of absence of sagittal suture in a young child. How far the closure of the sutures during intra-uterine life may interfere with the easy expulsion of the child by preventing or impeding overlapping of the cranial bones is a question for the obstetrician to consider.

in the works of some anatomists indications of an appreciation of its importance appear.* But the subject was never systematically discussed until the year 1851, when Professor Virchow, of Berlin, communicated to the Medical and Physical Society of Würzburg a learned and elaborate paper,† in which he described and figured various forms of distorted crania, all of which exhibited sutural obliteration, to a greater or less extent. In his remarks on these skulls, he pointed out the relations between the synostosis and the peculiarities of form. Since that time he has more than once returned to and communicated additional information on the same subject. In the year 1856, Dr. Minchin, of Dublin, who was evidently unacquainted with Virchow's researches, published a very excellent paper,§ in which he clearly showed the connexion which existed between a peculiarly elongated form of head, several examples of which he described, and the absence of the sagittal suture. The subject has also been discussed and its importance recognized by Professors Lucæ of Frankfort,|| Von Baer of St. Petersburg, and Welcker of Halle.** The distinguished American ethnologists, Drs. Morton and J. Aitkin Meigs, have also fully admitted the influence which a premature closure of the sutures may exercise on the form of the skull.tt

To render sufficiently clear how this may take effect, it will be advisable to sketch the general plan of development of the bones of the skull. The cranial bones are developed either in a cartilaginous

• I am indebted to the works of Virchow and Lucæ, but more especially to the former, for reference to the following anatomists, who have recognized the importance of premature synostosis in occasioning hindrances to the development of the skull. Molinetti-Dissertationes Anat. Path.' Venetiis, 1675, p. 36. Sommering-' Vom Bau des menschl. Körpers.' 1. S. 230. Hyrtl -- Lehrbuch d. Anat.' 1846, S. 191, 211. C. Bruch-'Beiträge zur Entw. des Knochen,' p. 141. J. Engel-Untersuch. über Schädelformen.' 1851, p. 67.

tUeber den Cretinismus, namentlich In Franken, und ueber pathologische Shädel formen.' Würzburg Verhand, Bd. 2. S. 230. Gesammelte Abhand.' p. 891, 1856.

Die Entwicklung des Schädelgrundes,' p. 78. Berlin, 1857. 'Knockenwachstum und Schädel formen,' etc. Virchow's Archiv. vol. 13, p. 323, 1858. § Contributions to Craniology.' Dublin Quarterly Medical Journal, vol. 22, p. 350, 1856. Zur Architectur des Menschenschädels.' etc. Frankfurt, 1857. Zur Morphologie der Rassen-Schädel,' Frankfurt, 1861.

1860.

Die Makrokephalen im Boden der Krym und Österreichs,' St. Petersburgh,

**Untersuchungen über Wachsthum und Bau des menschlichen Schädels,' Leipzig, 1862.

·

tt The cranial characteristics of the races of men,' in Nott and Gliddon's Indigenous Races of the Earth,' p. 237, 1857.

or membrane-like framework. Speaking generally, it may be stated that the bones of the base are formed in a cartilaginous, whilst those of the summit and sides are originally produced in a membranous matrix-substance. The ossification of the matrix begins in certain definite centres, in and around which the osseous spicula arise and proceed towards the circumference and margins of certain definite areas, in the centres of which these different ossific points appear. As the ossification advances, the bones come in contact with each other by their margins and their junction is marked, especially in the bones of the skull-cap, by a number of more or less jagged tooth-like processes, those of one bone dove-tailing with those of an adjacent bone, so as to form the peculiar articulation denominated a cranial suture, or synchondrosis. So long as any of the cartilaginous or membranous matrix remains unossified at these sutures or synchondroses, the growth of the skull in its various diameters and the increase in the size of its cavity are permitted, but when the matrixsubstance is exhausted then any further expansion is at an end.

So long as the ossification of the matrix-substance proceeds in a regular and uniform manner, the cranium will possess a symmetrical form. But should the ossific spicula belonging to one centre be produced at a greater rate than at the corresponding centre on the opposite side, then would they extend beyond their own area into that of an adjacent bone, so that the suture indicating the line of separation, between these bones, would be no longer a mesial one, but would lie to the right or left side as the case may be.

And it is to such a cause that I am inclined, in part at least, to attribute that slight want of symmetry, which one not unfrequently sees in many of the crania in any large collection. A slight twisting of the bones of the skull as a whole, more especially to be observed in the parietal and occipital regions, which causes the parietal eminence on one side to be more elevated than on the other. By this twisting, the sagittal suture has its position altered. It is no longer in the middle line, but lies to the right or left side; or perhaps it is no longer straight, but somewhat curved to the one side in its anterior half, to the other in its posterior. And, further, I have noticed in some specimens of crania, in which both a frontal and

I am quite disposed to agree with the statement made by Dr. D. Wilson, that "not only is inequality in the two sides of the head of frequent occurrence, but a perfectly symmetrical head is the exception rather than the rule."-Ethnical Forms, &c. p. 16.