BONE CHANGES IN THE HUMAN SKULL PROBABLY RESULTING FROM SCURVY IN INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD

Scurvy in children is poorly known in the palaeopathological literatur e despite biomedical references indicating that bone changes do occur in some cases and should be observable in human skeletal remains. Rese arch on infants' and children's skulls in museum and anatomical collec tions in the USA and Europe reveals a complex of features on the exter nal surface of the greater wing of the sphenoid and adjacent bone tiss ue that may be caused by scurvy. The lesions are bilateral and are cha racterized by porosity and, in some cases, hypertrophic bone formation . These abnormal bone changes are probably the result of a reaction to chronic haemorrhage in the deep vasculature associated with temporali s muscle function. While these lesions resemble those seen in anaemia and infection, their distinctive anatomical location and association w ith chewing should differentiate them, in most cases, from other disea se conditions. These features are also associated with porous, hypertr ophic lesions of the orbital roof and provide additional evidence that caution is needed in attributing porous lesions of the orbital roof s olely to anaemia. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.