Cranial vault sutures in the Jamaican Negro

In a series of thirty negro calvariae representing individuals of the 5th to the 8th decade the coronal, sagittal and lambdoid sutures were desernible externally in greater or lesser degree im twenty-eight cases. The process of external union of the sutures is slowly progressive into the seventh and eighth decades of life. Endo-cranial union is well in advance of ecto-cranial union and was largely completed by the end of the fifth decade. Two cases of lapsed union in the coronal and lambdoid sutures at ages forty-one and seventy-three years are recorded. No reliable estimate of the age of the individual can be drawn from the condition of the sutures. (AU)