PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 2G5 



but tliat tho truths embodied in rucIi physiological data arc as little to be eliininalcd 

 by ignoring or slighting all diversities from the predominant i'orm, and assign- 

 ing ir as the sole normal type, as by neglecting the many intermediate gradations, 

 and dwelling exclusively on the examples of extreme divergence from any pre- 

 vaiUng type. 



PAKT fli. 

 DESIGNED AND UNDESIGNED SOURCES OF CHANGE IN CRANIAL FORMS. 



Among the characteristics of the American typical cranium, as defined by 

 the author of the Crania Americana, and deduced by others from the evidence 

 accumulated in that valuable contribution to physical ethnology, considerable 

 importance is attached to the flattened occiput, which was assumed by him to 

 be a purely natural feature of the American race. Whde he recognizes the 

 elongated type of head pertaining to certain tribes, as the Osages, Missouiis, 

 Mandans, and Blackfeet, he adds : "Ev>n in these instances the characteristic 

 truncatiire of the occiput is more or less obvious;" and in his latest definition 

 of the specialties of the American skull, he remarks: "In fact, the flatness of 

 the occipital portion of the cran um will probably be found to characterizes a 

 greater or less number of individuals in every existing tribe from Terra del 

 I'uego to thi' Canadas." The celebrated Scioto Mound skull has already been 

 described, and the artificial origin of its greatly flattened occiput referred to, 

 which even Dr. Morton appears to have recognized as surpassing the limits of 

 his supposed typical conformation. " Similar forms," he remarks, " are common 

 in the Peruvian tombs, and have the occiput, as in this instance, so flattened 

 and vertical as to give the idea of artificial compression ; yet this is only an 

 exaggeration of the natural form, caused by the pressure of the cradle-board in 

 common use among the American nations." My own observations on American 

 crania led me, at an early period, to adopt the opinion not only that such ex- 

 treme examples of the vertical occiput as are Si'en in the Scioto Mound and the 

 Barrie skulls, arc the results of artificial pressure, but, as 1 remarked in \8;37, 

 when submitting my views on Dr. Morton's suppo-ed American cranial type, to 

 the ethnological section of the American Association tor the Advancement of 

 Science, it ,s extremely probable that fu,ther investigation will tend to the 

 conrhision that the vertical or flattened occiput instead of being a typical 

 characteristic, pertains entirely to the class of artificial modifications of the 

 natural cranium familiar to the American ( thnologist, alike in the disclosures of 

 ancient graves and in the customs of widely separated living tribt's.* The 

 idea thus expressed received further confirmation from noticing the almost 

 invariable accompaniment of such traces of artificial modification, with more or 

 less inequality in the two sides of the head, in the extremely transtorined 

 skulls of the Flathead Indians, and of the Natchez, Peruvians, and other ancient 

 nations by whom the same bai-barous practice was encouraged, the extent of 

 this deformity is frequently such as to excite surprise thai it could have proved 

 com atible with the healthful exercise of any vital functions. But now that 

 the general subject of artificial compression of the human cranium begins to 

 receive some degree of minute attention from craniologists, it becomes obvious 

 that such changes wrought on the natural form of the head are by no nusans 

 peculiar to the American cintineut, either in ancient or modern times. The 

 Macrocephali were known to Hi])pocrates in the fifth century before the (Jhristiau 

 era, as a people who elongated the lieads of their infants by artificial means. 



*Edin. Philosoph. Jourual N. tS., vol. vii, p. ^4. Cauadiuu Journal, vol. ii, p. 40G. 



