An introduction to the diseases of infancy / by J.W. Ballantyne.

  • Ballantyne, J. W. (John William), 1861-1923.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the diseases of infancy / by J.W. Ballantyne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    54/292 (page 30)
    KISEASKS OF INFANCY. jr of'V''T “T f ^ ^the average tlie relation is two Ki?^ ctms.). In 0 der children I ascertained the relation of vault to base; thus e case of a child of six the vault measured 3 I ctms. and the base’ wis'^3S^’t'f'^^l'‘> thirteen years of age the proportion loXf 0 f i 2-88 t»es n ei han the base. In the adult, Cleland finds that in Scotch Shulls he proportion is as 2'72 to 1. It will be seen that with legaid to the measurement of the arch and its relation to that of 11C base at birth, the figures in my cases do not quite give the lelative proportion of a little over 3 to 1 which Cleland finds to be tlie rule. The probability is that Cleland measured heads of children a ew days old, in which the compressing effects of labour had passed off, whilst I measured the skulls of still-born children at the time when the bones were overlapping. Cleland, in the ca,se of five skulls of new-born children, finds the proportion of arch to base to be 3-06 to 1; my measurements made upon ten .skulls gave a pro- portion of 2 93 to 1. It is not, therefore, altogether certain that the arch bears a greater proportion to the base at the time of hirth than at any time either before or after birth ; it is most probable that during the last three months of intra-uterine life and the first ten years of extra-uterine, the arch of the cranium bears to the base the proportion of 3 (or nearly 3) to 1. After ten years of age, the proportion sinks to 2-7 or 2-8 to 1. Changes in the Skull during Infancy.—The frontal suture, if not solidified at birth, becomes obliterated in the first weeks of life; but the date of dhsappearance of the other sutures is very variable. With regard to the involution of the anterior fontanelle there has been some difference of opinion. Whilst Elsasser and many others have held that there is during the first year, or at any rate the first nine months of life, an increase in size of this fontanelle followed thereafter by a steady diminution, Kassowitz (Pediatric Section of meeting of Xaturalists and Physicians at Strasburg, 1885) has found, as the result of 465 measurements, that the involu- tion of this sjjace proceeds gradually and steadily from birth onwards. There is, it is true, an increase in size of the fontanelle during the first days of life; but this is due to the elastic recoil of the parts after the compressing effect of labour has passed away : thereafter it is probable that in normal cases Kassowitz is right