DESCRIPTIONS OF CRANIA.
oallcd, by Dr. Gosse, the temporo-parietal, or " tête aplatie mr les côtés." It appears to have
been practised by various people, both of the ancient and modern world, and in Europe as well
as the East. The so-called Moors, or Arabs of North Africa, affected this form of skull;
and, even in modern times, the women of Belgium and Hambui-g are both described as compressing
the heads of their infants into an elongate form *. Our own observations lead at least
to a presumption that this form of artificial distortion may have been practised by certain
primeval British tribes, particularly those who buried their distinguished dead in long chambered
tumuli. It has been made probable, by Dr. Minchin t , that an abnormally elongated form of
skull may be strictly congenital, and depend on obliteration of the sagittal suture, or on the
development of the parietal bones from a vertical centre rather than from the sides. Such an
explanation, however, does not seem applicable to the skulls from the chambered barrows of
Britain, any more than to those of the Macrocephali of Herodotus. The premature obliteration
of the sagittal suture observed in the skull before us, and to a stUl greater degree in that figured
by Blumenbach under the name of " Asiatee MacrocephaU Î," appears to be an ordinary concomitant
of the compressed and elongate skull. On the whole, the writer thinks this obliteration
has been produced by pressm-e or manipulation of the sides of the head in infancy, by which
it was sought to favour the development of a lengthened form of skull, to which, however,
there has probably, in most such instances, been a natural and inherent tendency §.
!* Ilk m
ni' ir;:
P/an showw(/ the ¡wsition of the Lorxj Barrow at West Kennet, in relation to the Circles at Abury, Silhury Hill, ^-c.
(J. T.)
* Dr. Gosse ("Deform. Art. du Crsine," pp. 55, 57) does
not quote the authorities quite accurately. Lauremberg (Pasicompse
Nova, 1734-72, p. C3) writes, ''Macrocephalse fere
etiarn sunt Hamburgenses feminse, qua ipsse ligationibus, et
nescio qua superstitiosa cura, ateneris, capita in longum assuefaciunt."
Comp. Soemmering, Corp. Hum. Fabr. 1794, vol. i.
p. 62. Very similnr, two centuries earlier, is the testimony
of "N'csaliiis, as to the Belgian mothers. He adds, however,
" e t temporibus potissimum dormire sinant."
t Dublin Journal of Medical Science, Nov. 1856, "Contributions
to Craniology."
* Dec. 1, Tab. III. " Vertex imprimis valde elatus, compressus,
carinatus. Sutura sagittalis ab utraque pagina prorsus
deleta, coronali e contrario et lambdoidea perfecte superstitibus.
* * * * * * Occipitium declive, elongatuni. In in-
50.
tema verticis facie eo loco ubi alias sutura sagittalis decurrit,
fossa cui sinus venosus longitudinalisadjacetprofuude insculpta
est."
§ The regular and ovoid form of head which now prevails
in England is probably in part due to the practice of mothers
and nurses gently rubbing the heads of infants with the palm of
the hand, with the object of favouring regularity of shape. In
accordance with this, it is to be remarked that it is in the most
degraded and neglected classes that the more striking departures
from a symmetrical form of head are to be observed.
Andry (L'Orthopédie, 1741, vol. ii. p. 2) long ago observed,
" La tête de l'enfant, selon qu'elle est pressée en un sens ou
en un autre, prend telle ou telle figure. C'est de là que procède
la différence qui se trouve entre les différens peuples
par rapport à la figure de la tête."
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