The Paranasal Sinuses: Review of the Literature for 1940

Abstract

The literature for 1940 was not as voluminous as that of previous years, owing doubtless to the curtailment of shipments of periodicals from the Continent. However, it is comforting to note the increase in the material reaching us from Latin America and the tendency among physicians of the neighboring countries toward freer use of journals published in the United States. A closer relationship, to the mutual advantage of physicians of Latin America and North America, could easily be fostered by the addition of abstracts in the respective languages of the countries concerned, at the conclusion of each article. If South American periodicals published abstracts in English (a few already do) and North American periodicals in Spanish and Portuguese, not only wider reading but a deeper interest in each other's activities would result. ANATOMY Cave and Haines 1 present an excellent study of the skulls of various types of monkeys, from which certain phylogenetic conclusions may be drawn by comparison with the human skull. This comparison is made graphically in a table, which gives the comparative findings with respect to the sinuses of the gibbon, orang, gorilla, chimpanzee and man. The authors' conclusions may be summed up best in their own words:The primitive anthropoid ape stock gave rise to three divergent lines, leading respectively to the relatively primitive gibbons, the highly specialized orang and to the African anthropoid apes and man. Of the last group, the chimpanzee remains a relatively unspecialized member, the gorilla is distinguished by an inflated nasolachrymal duct whilst man is characterized by a remarkably complex ethmoidal labyrinth. The evidence of paranasal structure, considered alone, is inadequate for the demonstration of the mutual relationships of these three forms, yet it does suggest the derivation of both chimpanzee and gorilla from an anthropoid ape common stock distinct from that leading to man. On the other hand the common possession of ethmoidal sinuses suggests a close affinity between man and the African anthropoid apes to the exclusion of all other primates.