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A Suture is a sort of connexion resembling the putting together of two Saws, tooth within tooth, or the making up of a Garment of many torn patches.
Such Sutures there are many in a mans Head: for an Head is seldom found without any Suture, such as Ari∣stotle
saw, and at Helmstadt and the* 1.1 Monastery of Heilbrun in France such an one is shewed (as a Rarity) and is every where to be met with.
And such persons have not their Heads so liable to exter∣nal injuries, but very much to inward Infirmities, because transpiration is thereby made more difficult. By which distinction, Falopius and Columbus do reconcile Celsus and Robertus Constantinus, the former of whom wrote, that the Head which had no Sutures was most liable to sickness, the latter that the Head without Sutures was more sub∣ject.
Somtimes through Age and Driness, the Sutures do so grow together in aged persons, that they are scarce to be seen; whereas they are in the mean season, more visible in young persons. Somtimes the coronal suture is only seen obliterated; but the temporal do hardly vanish, ex∣cept all the other be first defaced.
The Number and Situation of the Sutures, is the same in a Woman and in a Man, contrary to what Aristotle thought; nor doth it vary in re∣spect* 1.2 of figures, as Hippocrates and Galen would have it, unless very rarely. For M. A. Severinus observed between the saggiteal and Lambda∣fashion'd suture, another over and above of a triangular shape, and neer the end of the said Sutures in another Skul, a new oval Suture.
Moreover, the Sutures of the Head of a certain Fool, did vary in figure, which all stuck up with one Hillock as it were. which I saw in three Epileptick Chil∣dren at Naples, especially in the coronal Suture, which did suggest a new Cause and Cure of the Epilepsie or Falling-sickness.
The Sutures which knit the Bones of the Skul, are some of them called true and proper, others false and Bastard Sutures.
They are termed true, which meet together like the teeth of Combs, or like Saws, put together, which I have somtimes seen after Contusion movable, which also in most Skuls that are over dried in the Earth is common. They are also loose in Children, and therefore they o∣pen in Hydrocephalic or Water-headed Children, as I saw in a Boy at Hafnia, like to that which Severinus pictures out in his Treatise of Imposthumes, and Donatus describes.
The bastard Sutures are joyned like Scales and Tiles on an house-top, and therefore they are termed Squamosae conglu••inationes, Scaley-conjunctions, and may rather be termed joynings, seeing they are more like to an Harmo∣nia then a Suture.
There are three true ones.
For from the Temples it ascends on both sides, athwart, to the top of the Head. The Arabians call this suture Ar∣cualis and Puppis.
Its Use is to joyn the Fore-head bone with the bones of the Hinder-head, and to distinguish them therefrom. The place of the coronal Suture is sound out in a living person, either by carrying the hand upwards from the Wrist along the Nose, or by drawing a Thred out from Ear to Ear, and another cross the same from the end of the Nose.
2. That which is opposite to this, is behind and in the Occiput or Hinder-head. 'Tis called Lamdoeidès the Lam∣da-shap'd, from the Greek letter A. some call it hupsiloï∣des from the letter upsilon, also prorae sutura.
This ascends obliquely, from the Base of the Hinder∣head, to each Ear, grows into an Angle. Somtimes when the Hinder-head is large or otherwise, 'tis divided by a transverse suture, simple, or double: somtimes there is a double triple Suture as if a greater triangle did contain one or two lesser Triangles within the same: where the Bones so comprehen∣ded,* 1.4 are termed ossicula triangularia, the little three-cornerd bones, commended, in the Falling-sickness.
Besides these triangular bones, Olaus Worm a rare man, found others in the Lambda-like Suture, which perfora∣ted both the Boards of the Skull, observed as yet by very sew. Three for the most part on the right, as many on the left side, differing in magnitude, figure and situation, which also are accurately discerned and distinguished in Infants. The lowest is seen at the Processus mammillares, the middlemost a little higher, scarce half a Fingers breadth, the third a little further distinct from the second. Pavius found only two like to these, circumscribed with their little Sutures or seams, which he doubts whether he should refer them to the Bones of the Occiput or the Bregma.
In Shape they are Various, Triangular, Oblong, Oval. somtimes in living persons I have observed them to grow so high, that I could Feel them with my Fingers, as if they had been Epiphysis or somewhat growing upon the Bone.
All are larger on the left side. but the greatest exceeds not the Nail of a Mans thumb.
They appear more distinct on the inner & Concave side of the Skul, than in the outward and convex, and there∣fore they are all more cleerly discern'd when the Skul is taken away,
We are nevertheless to observe that these bones of Worm do in divers Skuls vary, both in Number, Magnitude, Fi∣gure, Situation; so that somtimes there are four, som∣times two, and in a Right line only, somtimes in the very Juncture of the Sagittal with the Lambda-shap'd; some∣times also in the Scaley temporal Sutures.
Their Use, I believe, is 1. That the Sutures being in∣larged thereabouts, might afford a more free passage for Excrements.
2. That the Skul being made up of more bones, might be more safe in Blows and Contusions.
The Use of this Lambda-like Suture, is to distinguish the bone of the Occiput or Hinder-head, from the bones of the Temples, and the forepart of the Head.
3. In the middle betwixt these two is the Suture ter••r∣ed Sagittalis or Arrow-shap'd, because it runs in a streight line all along the Head, like an Arrow, betwixt the Co∣ronal and Lambda-shap'd Sutures.
Somtimes it proceeds through the middle of the Coro∣nal Suture and the middest of the Fore-head, as far as to the Nose, especially in Infants: in some also it cuts part of the Bone of the Occiput or Hinder-head. I remember it hath been somtimes wanting.
This Suture is termed Virgata and Recta.
Its Use is to distinguish and joyn together the two bones of the Sinciput or Fore-part of the Head.
Those two Suture are commonly called* 1.5 Nendosae or Bastard sutures, which are wont to be called Squamosae Scalie, Cor∣ticales and Temporales, because they cir∣cumscribe the Bones of the Temples. Now this Connexion like Scales was necessary, because the Temple-bones, be∣ing in the lower part very thick would have been to hea∣vy, if they had not been made by little and little thinner in their upper part, and joyned to the bones of the Sinci∣put atenuated by little and little like Scales.
Now there are many spurious Sutures* 1.6 every where in the Skul, also many har∣monies, where the bones are joyned to∣gether: in the Palate bone a peculiar Suture is seen.
The Use of the Sutures.
1. They serve for the free transpiration of fuliginous vapors. And therefore Hippocrates pronounces, that they have soundest Heads, who have most Sutures: and those that have their Heads without Sutures, are troubled with
page 341
An Head with∣out Sutures.
The Error of Aristotle.
The coronal Su∣ture why so cal∣led.
The triangular Bones of the Skul.
Why some Su∣tures are like Scales.
A great num∣ber of Sutures.