come known as the Berlin type of fiction. It cer- tainly allied him with the younger school, the so-called realists. But his realism was quite in- dividual, and dominated by his own kindly per- sonality. After the death of Freytag (1895) he occupied a position of distinguished prominence in German literature. No notice of him would be plete without mention of his reminiscences, Meine Kinderjahre (1894), and Yon Zwanzig bis Dreissig (1898). Consult Servaes, Theodor Fon- tanel (Berlin. 1900).
FONTANEL (Fr. fontanclle, diminutive for
fontaine, fountain, from ML. fontanel, foun-
tain, from Lat. fons, fount). An artificial
ulcer, formerly caused by physicians for its de-
rivative effect. Any hard mass kept under the
skin for a time will produce the necessary irrita-
tion, such as a dried pea bandaged into a cut in
the skin. This causes a discharge of pus, for-
merly supposed to drain away the material of
disease from another part of the body. The
method and idea are obsolete. The term fon-
tanel is also applied to one of the soft pulsating
spots on the head of a very young infant. Of
these there are three or four, the principal one
being at the crossing of the sagittal and coronal
sutures. This is the great or anterior fontanel.
The next in importance is the posterior or breg-
matic fontanel, at the junction of the sagittal
and lambdoidal sutures. The others, called the
sphenoidal and the mastoidal or Gasserian fon-
tanels, close very soon after birth, while the
posterior closes a few months, and the anterior
about two years after birth. Synchronously with
the pulse-beat, the brain pulsates through the
fontanels, and may be fancied to resemble the
water of a fountain.
