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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



sagacity. The theory of these liolcs being the result of a blow from 

 a stone hatchet is indeed extremely improbable in itself; then, too, 

 why should skulls so disfigm-ed be found in such numbers at Mar- 



vejols ? 



Peeforated Cranium from Lozere. 



Evidently these perforations were made by the hand of man, and 

 with some design ; or, to speak more plainly, these people trepanned 

 one another. For what motive did they practise this painful and often 

 fatal operation ? Numerous hypotheses have been put forward. Some 

 suppose, with a fair degree of probability, that it had a therapeutic ob- 

 ject. The trepan, indeed, has been practised from the most remote 

 antiquity. Hippocrates speaks of it as an operation widely diffused ; 

 and, although the father of medicine is in the habit of citing authori- 

 ties, and of naming the inventors of operations, he does not tell us the 

 name of the originator of trejjanning, which leads lis to think that his 

 name was not known, because it was lost in the night of time. It is 

 true that the name, from rpeno), J turti, indicates that, when it was 

 admitted into Greek surgery, it was performed, as it is now, by the 

 aid of a centre-bit ; still, in primitive times ruder methods were no 

 doubt employed. The trepan was in great repute among the Greeks, 

 and durinsc the middle ages was resorted to for the cure of a number 

 of maladies. The same practice widely prevails at the present time 

 among uncivilized races. 



M. le Baron de Larrey, in a note communicated to the Paris Acad- 

 emy of Medicine, relates that the Kabyles still frequently practise the 

 operation, making with a saw four cuts in the shape of a parallelo- 

 gram. General Faidherbe has sent to the Laboratoire des liautes 



