Chapter XVII: Munsee Crania: Parietal Foramina

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| 9 males | 12 females
+-----+---------+-----+----------
|Cases| Per cent|Cases| Per cent
------------------+-----+---------+-----+----------
None | 3 | 33 | 6 | 50
1 or 2 minute | 3 | 33 | 1 | 8
1 medium | 2 | 22 | 4 | 33
2 medium | 1 | 11 | — | —
1 medium on right,| | | |
2 minute on left| — | — | 1 | 8
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RETROMASTOID FORAMINA

The retromastoid (“mastoid”) foramina are most often two in number—a larger and a smaller—one of which transmits a vein from the transverse sinus within to the cutaneous occipital vein on the outside of the skull wall, and the other a smaller branch of the occipital artery. Like the parietal foramina, they show considerable individual and groupal variation in both number and size. It is not uncommon in some Indian crania to find one of these canals to be of very appreciable diameter (up to 4 mm.). While in the Munsee skulls they appear almost generally two on each side, they are in no instance above moderate size, and in several cases are quite minute. Thus in these specimens the retromastoid foramina stand in harmonious rather than compensatory relation with the small or even absent parietal foramina.