Skull landmark
Dear All, Can anyone help me to understand one of William Macewen's descriptions of a skull injury. He wrote: On examining his head a slight depression was found to exist on the left side about an inch behind the frontal ridge and running almost parallel with it. There was a distinct depression in the skull at this point, about an inch to an inch and a half in length, but this depressed portion so near to the angle of the frontal bone [did not account for the symptoms] On elevating the tissues Macewen found: the depressed portion previously spoken of as existing about an inch from the angular process of the frontal bone extended back to the auriculo-bregmatic line ... Elsewhere he says "Behind the angular process of the frontal there was a slight osseous depression .." I have no problem with the auriculo-bregmatic line. My problem is where the depression began. 'Frontal ridge' seems to have disappeared from anatomy texts as a landmark but if it is to be replaced by 'frontal crest,' the direction of that (internal) structure does not seem to square with the depression being (a) behind and parallel to the ridge and (b) its being near the angle of the frontal bone. If any one has a sketch, that would be appreciated. Malcolm Macmillan President-Elect, International Society for the History of the Neurosciences School of Psychology Deakin University Tel: + 61 3 9244 6846 Fax: + 61 3 9244 6858 E-mail: m.macmillan@deakin.edu.au For Phineas Gage and 'An Odd Kind of Fame' see: http://www.deakin.edu.au/hbs/gagepage For Freud criticism see: http://www.deakin.edu.au/hbs/freudcriticism For the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences see: http://www.ishn.org