282 PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 



period," on Roundway liill, North Wiltslairc, thus indicates their contrasting 

 characteristics, and suggests the probable source of such divergence from thy 

 supposed British type : " The general form of the cranium (pi. 43) differs greatly 

 from that from the adjoining barrow, (pi. 42.) That approaches an aeroceph- 

 alic, this a platycephalic form ; that is eminently brachycephalic, this more 

 nearly of a dolichocephalic character. As the eye at once detects, the difference 

 is much greater than would be inferred from a mere comparison of the measure- 

 ments. The respective peculiarities of form in the two skulls may possibly be 

 explained by supposing that both have been subject to artificial deformation, 

 though of a different kind — the one appearing to have been flattened on tlie 

 occiput, the other showing a depression immediately behind the coronal suture, 

 over the parietal bones, which seems to indicate that this part of the skull was 

 subject to some habitual pressure and constriction, perhaps from the use of a 

 bandage or ligature tightly bound across the head and tied under the chin, such 

 as to this day is employed in certain parts of the west of France, producing 

 that form of distortion named, by Dr. Gosse, the sincipital, or tctc b'dobec."* 



The gradual recognition of this secondary source of undesigned artificial 

 changes in the form of the skull may be traced through various works, from 

 the vague perception of its occasional influence on the occipital form of American 

 crania, indicated Ijy Dr. Morton, to the full appreciation of its varied effects in 

 the production of the most diverse exaggerations of normal or abnormal shapes, 

 in the later decades of the Crania Britannica. Dr. J. B. Davis devotes a 

 chapter in the first decade to the subject of "Distortions of the human skull," 

 in which he minutely discusses the influence of artificial causes in modifying and 

 transforming its natural shape in a wonderful and frequently very fantastijc 

 manner. But the only class of changes which attracts his attention, in addition 

 to those expressly resulting from design, are the examples of the fourth class, 

 where the deformation is clearly traceable to posthumous compression. But 

 during the progress of the work the attention of various observers was directed 

 to the secondary sources of change of form, and especially to such as may be 

 ascribed to the use of the cradle-board, or some corresponding nursing usage. 

 In the fifth decade of the Crania Brita?mica accordingly may be traced very 

 clearly the influence of the full recognition of such causes in modifying the 

 views of its joint authors as to the significance of certain peculiar skull-forms. 

 An extremely brachycephalic skull of a youth, obtained from a barrow on 

 Ballard DoAvn, Isle of Piirbeck, is described as unsymmetrical, and as affording 

 " tolerably clear evidence that this form, if not always produced, was at least 

 liable to be exaggerated by an artificial flattening of the occiput, such as is 

 practiced by many American and Polynesian tribes. "t In the same decade 

 another skull of the type, most dissimilar to this, is described and illustrated. 

 It was recovered in fragments from the remarkable chambered barrow at West 

 Kennet, Wiltshire ; and its most characteristic features are thus defined by Dr. 

 Thurnam : " It is decidedly dolichocephalic, narrow, and very flat at the sides, 

 and realizes more nearly than any we have yet had to figure the kumbecephalic 

 or boat-shaped form described by Dr. D. Wilson. The frontal region is narrow, 

 moderately arched, and elevated at the vertex, but slopes away on each side. 

 The parietal region is long, and marked by a prominent ridge or carina in the 

 line of the sagittal suture, which is far advanced towards obliteration, whilst 

 the other sutures are quite as perfect as usual. The occiput is full and promi- 

 nent ; the supra-occipital ridges only moderately marked. There is a deep 

 digastric groove, and a slight parocipital process on each side. The extern.'d 

 auditory openings are somewhat behind the middle of the skull, and very much 

 behind a vertical line drawn from the junction of the coronal and sagittal 



-Crania Britannica, Dec. v, pi. 43. 

 I Crania Britannica, Dec. v, pi. 45. 



