The Closure of the Cranial Sutures as a Sign of Age

Abstract

It is, I believe, pretty generally admitted among anatomists that the time and order of the closing of the cranial sutures are very uncertain, far too much so lor them to be trustworthy guides to determino the ago of the skull.Humphry's remark is well-known: "In some skulls edentulous from uge, I have found 'hem still well-marked; whereas in others, which bore evidence of having only just reached maturity, they could scarcely bo traced."Nevertheless, it is still rather vaguely taught that they begin to close about middle life, or, according to some, from thirty-to forty.Testut, in his new work on anatomy states that "la synostose physiologique debute vers l'âge de •piaranté-cinq ans."It seems to me that medico-legal Writers are, on the whole, rather more confident than the anatomists.Tidy writes: "In old age . . . the sutures become firmly ossilied and generally less distinct.If the sutures of the skull are indistinctWe: may thus fix the age as at least between fifty and sixty."Some others say pretty much the; same thing, riiero is, I think, little doubt that the statements of ono writer on this point are simply repeated by the next with little attempt at verification.Topinard makes the following very precise statements in his "Anthropologie:": "In line, if no suture is affected, the person is about thirty-five years old or less.If the hind part of the sagittal is beginning to close ho is r o Ott about forty.If the coronal suture is ossilied near the bregma ho is fifty or moro.The temporal suture being closed he is seventy or over."lie admits, how- ever, that the time of the closure of the sutures varies within large: limits.I could mention a circular from a high official source in this country in which the follow- ing directions were given for estimating the age of bodies iu which it could not otherwise be obtained." This [the condition of the sutures] it is claimed by

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