TURNER ON CRANIAL DErORMITIES. 123 



this aspect, was a broadly shaped egg, the narrow end of which was 

 directed forwards ; or it might be compared to a triangle with a 

 rounded base. 



The boy was a well grown healthy looking child, and exhibited 

 an amount of intelligence, quite equal to that usually possessed by 

 children of his age or condition of life. The mother told me that 

 his head was noticed, immediately after birth, to possess a peculiar 

 form, and she particularly states that he had no opening (anterior 

 fontanelle) on the top of his head. In all other respects he was 

 perfectly well formed. Her labour was natural. She has had four 

 other children, but their heads were without any special peculiarity. 



The following are a few of the principal measurements : — greatest 

 length from the most projecting part of the beak, to the most pro- 

 minent part of the occiput 7*2 inches. — Longitudinal arc to the 

 occipital protuberance 12'5.— Intermeatoid arc 13"7. — Horizontal 

 circumference round the most projecting part of the beak 20*5: 

 round the root of the nose 19"5. — From these measurements, as well 

 as from an inspection of the head, it is evident that the general 

 capacity of the cranium is good, the space lost in the frontal region 

 by its lateral compression being compensated for by increased growth 

 in the parietal and occipital regions. 



I have had no opportunity of anatomizing this or any other 

 specimen of a similarly formed skull, so that I cannot speak from 

 personal observation of the exact condition of the cranial bones and 

 their sutural margins, but so far as one can judge from an external 

 inspection of the living head, I have no doubt that this boy's skull 

 corresponds closely with those crania which have been described and 

 figured by Professor "Welcker of Halle, by the name of Trigono- 

 cephaly* The skulls of this form, which Welcker has personally 

 examined, are those of two new-born children, two children about five 

 years old, and one adult male probably between 50 and 60 years of 

 age ; but he has in addition seen a plaster cast of the head of a new- 

 born Trigonocephalus, in the Medico- Chirui'gical academy at Dresden, 

 and he refers to a case described by Von Ammon, and to a specimen 

 described by Meissner in the Museum at Breslau, of apparently the 

 same form, and these seem to be the only cases which have been 

 recorded of this description of cranial deformity. In all of them, 

 the peculiar beaked form of the middle of the frontal region, the 

 absence of frontal eminences, and consequent hollowness of the sides 



* Untersuchungen iiber die Menschlichen Schadeln. Leipzig, 1862. Ueber 

 Zwei seltnere DifFormitaten des menschlichen Schadels. Halle, 1863. 



