Certain conditions of the occiput have been described as associated with degeneracy. As Obici[194] and Dei Vecchio[195] have shown, the occipital condyle, in man normally convex, abnormally varies between two extremes, the flat and angular condyles. The flat condyle indicates a degenerative type. In the angular condyle the anterior face is derived from that portion of the basi-occipital nucleus that normally takes part in the formation of the anterior condyle region; the posterior face forms the embryonal germ of the occipital. The occipital of the adult is the final outcome of the fusion of an uncertain number of vertebræ. The occipital bone in man is practically made up of five bones, union between which does not occur completely until the fifth or sixth year. The deficiencies in the chondrocranium appear in the occipital bone, which requires a small portion of the dermal bone to complete it on each side. The variability of the occipital bone which, as just shown, is so frequently associated with all forms of degeneracy, is still better understood when we remember that it is of vertebral character. The investing mass of the head and of the notochord is the skeleton of the occipital bone. Between this skeleton and the pituitary body the important portion of the brain formed by the occipital lobes takes its origin. As these lobes are practically, as Spitzka has shown, the great centres of sense and other inter-associations it is not astonishing that their imperfect development should be accompanied by changes in the occipital bone. As Crochley Clapham, Mickle, and Spitzka have shown, a flat occiput is common in imbecility and moral insanity. It has been found quite frequently in "reasoning maniacs" by Campagne. The proper development of the occiput influences the proper development of association tracts which serve as a balance wheel to the individual. The proper development of the occipital bone is, moreover, connected with the proper development of the two last vertebræ, which like it are losing their vertebral characteristics. CHAPTER XI THE DEGENERATE FACE AND NOSE