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The anatomy of the human body based on a special teleological system is one of the greatest miracles of the world. The skull's primary function is the defence of the brain, so every alteration or disease of the brain results in some alteration of the skull. This analogy is to be identified even in the human embryo. Proportions of the 22 bones constituting the skull and of sizes of sutures are not only the result of the phylogeny, but those of the ontogeny as well. E.g. the age of the skeletons in archaeological findings could be identified according to these facts. Present paper outlines the ontogeny and development of the tissues of the skull, of the structure of the bone-tissue, of the changes of the size of the skull and of its parts during the different periods of human life, reflecting to the aesthetics of the skull as well. "Only the human scull can give me an impression of beauty. In spite of all genetical colseness, a skull of a chimpanzee cannot impress me aesthetically"--author confesses. In the second part of the treatise those authors are listed, who contributed to the perfection of our knowledge regarding the skull. First of all the great founder of modern anatomy, Andreas Vesalius, then Pierre Paul Broca, Jacob Benignus Winslow are mentioned here. The most important Hungarian contributors were as follow: Sámuel Rácz, Pál Bugát or--the former assistant of Broca--Aurél Török. A widely used tool for measurement of the size of the skull, the craniometer was invented by the latter. The members of the family Lenhossék have had also important results in this field of research, while descriptive anatomy of the skull was completed by microsopical anatomy thanks the activity of Géza Mihálkovits.

The Ruland family of German origin played an important role both in Hungarian and European medical history. Being a rather numerous family, and moreover, due to their habit of preferring to give the same first names to their children and because they worked in a relatively short period (ca. between 1550 and 1650), researchers often confuse one Ruland with the other. The present paper based on source-criticism, makes successful attempts to put the genealogy in order, presenting the history of the family, giving detailed biographies of each single Ruland and bringing together the bibliography of their works as well. As a result of her efforts the author puts a new light on the biographical data of the best known Ruland, namely of John David and at the same time she revisits the activity of John Ruland, who lived and worked in Hungary.