Notes on the crypt and bones of Hythe Church / by H.D. Dale and F.G. Parsons.

  • Dale, Herbert D.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Notes on the crypt and bones of Hythe Church / by H.D. Dale and F.G. Parsons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    W'itli I'egarcl to the age at which the greater miiiilxa* of these ])eople died, it is (|uite easy to tell a skull below tweutxA as there is a cleft at V ' the Ijase which does not close till this age. ddie wisdom teeth usually come down to a level witli the others betAveeii twenty and twenty-five, and if these are in place we may assume that the skidl is near or over the latter age. ddie obliteration of the sutures on the vaidt of the sknll does not l)egin till between thirty and forty as a laile, and although the details are too technical to enter into here, a rough work- ing estimate can be gathered from them as well as from the loss of the teeth and manv other smaller signs only apju’eciable to an anatomist. Taking all the j)oints into consideration, I am (piite inclined to agree with Ur. Knox that a large nnmber are men in the [)rime of life, though there are undoubtedly a certain number of old ]people. T think at least Ave may fairly say that the total age of 100 of these skidls woidd not nearly eiiual the total ages taken at random from 100 tombstones in an English church- yard. Tlie rest of the bones Ijear out the ('vidence