[747] Hist. Animal., i., 7. In reference to this description, it is stated by Vesalius, who in the course of his life had examined a great number of crania, that it is very rare indeed to meet with a skull in which the sutures are wanting. He accounts for the statement made by Herodotus (Hist. ix.) and Aristotle (1. c.), respecting skulls without sutures, upon the supposition that the observations of these authors must have been made upon those of old persons, in whom the sutures are often very indistinct. (Chirurg. Magn., i., 17.)
[748] H. N., xi., 48; ed. Hardouin.
[749] De Partib. Animal., p. 34; ed. Londin.
[750] Φοεός. The exact meaning of this term is well defined by Eustathius in his Commentary on Homer (ad Iliad., ii., 219), ό ἐις ὀξὺ λήγονσαν ἔχων τὴν κεφαλήν. It is excellently expressed by Damm as follows: “One whose head diminishes towards the top like a sugar-loaf.” (Lexicon Homericum in voce Φοεός.)
[751] De Usu Partium, ix., 17.
[752] Surgery, v., 4.
[753] Chirurg. Mag., i., 17.
[754] It is well known that in very advanced age the sutures get nearly effaced. See the Cyclopædia of Anatomy, vol. i., p. 745.
[755] Comment. de Ossibus.
[756] Obs. Anatom.