266 THE NATUBAL HISTORY REVIEW, 



coronal suture, wliicli he tliiuks may depeud upon au unusually 

 Btrong development of the anterior and posterior genu of the corpus 

 callosum.^ Professor Kolleston appears to take a similar view of the 

 " broad and shallow depression in the line of the coronal suture often 

 seen in well-developed crania. "f "We require a test to distinguish 

 a normal depression of this sort, from that artificial one in the same 

 situation produced by bandaging. It is not to be supposed that all 

 transverse depressions of the ealvarium are independent of artificial 

 agency. The macrocephalous skulls of the Crimea and the con- 

 stricted and flattened skulls of Peru and other parts of America 

 afford ample proof that this is not the case. We must also refer (as 

 is admitted by von Baer) those slighter deformities in the modern 

 Erench skulls which have been alluded to, to the same cause ; though 

 we should distinguish the latter as undesignedly and the Crimean and 

 Peruvian skulls as designedly distorted. 



Obliteration of the sutures may no doubt arise from the long 

 continued pressure on the growing skull of bandages, ligatures, pads» 

 and boards, such as are employed in the deforming processes of so 

 many peoples. Professor Dr. D. AVilson, in common with many 

 previous observers, has remarked on the premature ossification of the 

 sutures as very common in the diversely-distorted flat-headed skulls 

 of America. That external pressure " not infrequently" produces 

 obliteration of the sutures in the points where it is applied, has the 

 support of the distinguished anatomist and cautious observer, Pro- 

 fessor "Welcker of Halle. In a Peruvian (Iluanca) skull, Professor 

 "Welcker says, " the coronal suture in its middle, where the ligature 

 crossed, which was applied in the moulding of the skull, was obliter- 

 ated, whilst in the normal situation of commencing obliteration in the 

 neighbourhood of the angulus sphenoidalis it was perfectly open. "J 

 Dr. William Turner also observes, that in artiflcial deformation, 

 " the form into which the head is thrown by the pads, bandages, and 

 other apparatus employed, is in some measure preserved by the 

 premature synostosis induced by their application for a consider- 

 able period. So that when the compressing agents are removed, 

 the head still retains the form into which they had thrown it. What 

 they have initiated the premature synostosis induced by them has 



* Die Makrokephalen der Erym,8iQ.., 1859, p. 11. Comp. pp. 9, 17. 

 I Brit, and For. 3fed. C'hir. Review, April, 1863, p. 508. 

 4: Warhsthum nnd Ban, p. 15. 



