PEOFESSOR THOMSON ON DISTORTED HUMAN SKULLS. 



399 



Eig. 1. is a view of the base of one of the most characteristic 

 of these deformed skulls. The bones of the face, with the right 

 temporal, and a part of the right side of the occipital bone are wanting. 

 The form of the posterior portion of the cranium is nearly normal, 

 perhaps it may be slightly compressed laterally. All the twisting is 

 in front of a line joining the zygomatic processes of the temporal 

 bones. The right external angular process of the frontal bone, and 

 the right orbit are forced downwards and inwards, carrying the orbit 

 on the opposite side, upwards and outwards, and displacing the eyes 

 nearly an iach on either side. The congeries of bones is bent in 

 mass, the sutures remaiuiag perfectly close. Along a liue passing 

 from the upper and outer angle of the left orbit, through the upper 

 portion of the temporal fossa, across the coronal suture, and for about 

 an iach and a half iuto the sphenoidal angle of the left parietal, the 

 bones are somewhat abruptly bent. Lines of minute cracks with 

 perfectly sharp edges traverse this line of flexure, the cracks are 

 widest and most e\ddent where the bending is most abrupt. The 

 Orchard skulls generally are rather long, with a weU marked occipital 

 protuberance. Were it not for the doubt caused by the peculiar 

 circumstances of their interment, I should be inclined to refer them 

 to the Celtic tjrpe, 



For an opportunity of examining and figiu-ing the next example 

 (Fig. 2.) I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Grrattan of Belfast. 

 It is one of a series disinterred by Mr. Grrattan in May, 1853, from 

 a sepulchral mound at Mount Wilson in King's County, and des- 

 cribed by him in the 1st Vol. of the Ulster Journal of Archaeology. 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



