404 OEIGENAL AETICLE3, 



inclined at something like a definite angle varying from 25° to 30®, 

 The articulations of the neck, from their structure, only yield to a 

 certain extent, thus defining the angle of inclination, which may be 

 modified, however, within certain narrow limits by the state of the 

 soft parts of the individual, and by the form of the occipital bone. 

 It may possibly reach its maximum in the Celtic head, in which the 

 occipital protuberance is usually conical and strongly marked. The 

 vertical point of a skull resting carelessly in this natui'al position 

 Avould be removed from the centre of the frontal bone to a point 

 above and somewhat within the outer angle of the orbit, and midway 

 between the superciliary ridge and the coronal suture. 



Pressiu-e is principally applied vertically to bones buried in loose 

 soil, and the tendency is for bones and soil together to be compressed 

 and to set downwards. The common form of distortion illustrated 

 by the three above examples is exactly what would be produced 

 were vertical pressure apjDlied to the spheroidal skull, rendered 

 somewhat flexible, and its walls supported by a yielding mass within, 

 were the skull slightly weak along a Une nearly coinciding with the 

 coronal suture, and were the axis of vertical pressure to be repre- 

 sented by a line joining the lateral point indicated, on the frontal 

 bone, right or left, with a point a little above the outer end of the 

 superior curved line of the occipital, on the opposite side. 



Such are the circumstances which seem to me to account suffi- 

 ciently satisfactorily for this remarJiable form of distortion. One or 

 two further considerations suggest themselves. Another form of 

 distortion, much more calculated to embarrass the ethnologist, and 

 much less easily detected, probably exists more generally than we at 

 present imagine. Frequently in ancient graves we have evidence that 

 the head had been carefully propped in a vertical position. Heads 

 so placed, and surrounded with soil, would be in exactly the same 

 circiimstances as to the effect of pressure as in the former case, only 

 the axis of vertical pressiu'e would pass through the centre of the 

 frontal bone. The effect of pressure in this direction would be to 

 flatten the frontal and the occipital bones, to bulge the parietals 

 regularly out, and to shorten the skull. The head might be very 

 considerably shortened by extremely slow and well-supported vertical 

 pressure, especially after the separation of the maxillary bones and 

 tlie rupture of the basi-occipital by the cervical vertebrae, frequently 

 an early effect of pressure ; without materially affecting the symmetry 

 of the cranium. A force acting in this direction, however, would take 

 the squamous sutures at great disadvantage, and might probably be 

 much more effective than oblique pressure in breaking up the head. 



Distorted skulls are frequent in connection with ancient sepul- 

 ture ; they are certainly not common in modern churchyards. The 

 reason is obvious. Certain conditions are favourable to steady regular 

 distortion. The head ought to be at once surrounded and supported 

 by soil, and fine soil should sift into the cavity as the soft parts are 

 decomposed. Tlie soil sliould be spongy and moist, and the moisture 



