1. That in cases of alveolar harelip, a small portion of bone has been
found in many instances on the outer side of the cleft, quite distinct
from the maxilla. This is claimed to be the mesognathion, separated
by the cleft from the endognathion, and by a distinct suture from the
exognathion. A picture (Fig. 39) is appended of an adult skull taken
from the museum of the Royal Anatomical Institute of Kiel, which clearly
shows a small distinct flake of bone in the required position, extending
back as far as the ordinary site of the anterior palatine canal. Such
has been also found in children’s skulls, and very distinctly in a
series of horses’ skulls with alveolar harelip. (For figures of such,
_v._ ‘Langenbeck’s Archiv,’ xxxi, 2.) But this condition, indicating
the distinct entity of the mesognathion, is not very commonly to be
demonstrated in human pathology, inasmuch as the suture is early
obliterated. But its existence is indicated by the dentition, to which we
must now turn.
[Illustration: FIG. 40.—Drawing of a case of double alveolar and palatine
cleft with projecting os incisivum, to show the lateral incisor on outer
side of the cleft.
_i₁_, _i₂_, _c_, _m₁_, _m_₂, represent the alveoli of the teeth as in
Figs. 26 and 27. _v._ Vomer. B. Palatal process of superior maxilla
united to the meso- and exo-gnathion. A. Os incisivum, consisting of the
two endognathia, and bearing the alveoli of the central incisors. (After
_Albrecht_.)]
2. That in alveolar harelip there is in a large number of cases a
distinct precanine or incisor on the outer side of the cleft. This
is well shown in Figs. 39 and 40. In the former, an adult skull, the
mesognathion is distinctly seen bearing the alveolus of a precanine
tooth, the lateral incisor; whilst the central bony portion (the
endognathion) bears but the socket for one tooth, the central incisor.
The latter is a picture of a child’s skull with double alveolar harelip
and cleft palate; the os incisivum is seen separate and projecting
forwards at the end of the nasal septum; it bears the sockets of the two
central incisors. Outside the cleft the alveolus bears four teeth on
either side, viz. two molars, one canine, and one precanine, which we
cannot but recognise as the normal lateral incisor. So that the dental
formula of the upper jaw might be represented thus:
In normal jaw—CI₂I₁I₁I₂C;
in double alveolar harelip—
CI₂=I₁I₁=I₂C,
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