PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 283 



sutures." Its extreme length and breadth are 1 Si and 5.1, and an inequality in 

 the development of the two sides is obvious in the vertical view. As the 

 brachycephalic skull recalls certain American and Polynesian forms, so such 

 examples of the opposite type suggest the narrow {\nd elongated skulls of the 

 •Australians and Esquimaux ; and he thus proceeds : " The Ballard Down skull 

 bears marks of artificial flattening of the occiput ; this calls to mind the artificial 

 lateral flattening of the skull characteristic of the ancient people called Macro- 

 cephali, or long heads, of Avhom Hippocrates tells las that ' while the head of 

 the child is still tender, they fashion it with their hands, and constrain it to 

 assume a lengthened shape by applying bandages and other suitable contrivances, 

 whereby the spherical form of the head is destroyed, and it is made to increase 

 iu length.' This mode of distortion is called by Dr. Gosse the temporo-parietal 

 or ' ttte aplaticsufles cotes' It appears to have been practiced by various 

 people, both of the ancient and modern world, and in Europe as well as the 

 east. The so-called Moors, or Arabs of North Africa, aff'ected this form of 

 skull ; and even in modern times the women of Belgium and Hamburg are both 

 described as compressing the heads of their infants into an elongate form. Our 

 own observations lead at least to a presumption that this form of artificial dis- 

 tortion may have been practiced by certain primeval British tribes, particularly 

 those who buried their distinguished dead in long chambered tumuli." 



In connexion with this class of head-forms, as the result of comjiression. Dr. 

 Thurnam draws attention to the obliteration of the sagittal suture in the elongated 

 skull. I have noted this iu many Flathead crania, and shall recur to the subject 

 in referring to those in .the Washington and Philadelphia collections. If the 

 artificial forms result from compression, the flattened occiput and artificially 

 abbreviated skull should show a tendency to ossification and obliteration of the 

 coronal and the lambdoidal sutures ; while in the elongated skull the sagittal 

 suture will be the one aftected, as is the case in one figured and described by 

 IJiumenbach, under the name of "Asiatic Macrocephali." But in all 

 cases of an artificial change of form, the natural proportions necessarily 

 exercise some influence on the result; and Dr. Thurnam, accordingly, 

 when referring to the obliteration of the sagittal suture as a result of the 

 artificial elongation of the West Kennet skull, expresses his belief that this 

 " has been produced by pressure or manipulations of the sides of the head 

 in infancy, by which it was sought to favor the development of a lengthened 

 form of skull ; to which, however, there was probably, in the present instance, 

 at least, a natural and inherent tendency." It is perhaps worthy of note here, 

 that a long narrow head has been observed as one of the characteristic features 

 of Berber tribes of North Africa. Mr. J. Homer Dixon, who resided for some 

 time at Algiers, and had repeated opportunities of visiting and closely observing 

 the neighboring tribes, describes them to me as distinguished by their prominent, 

 arched nose, with wide nostrils ; large mouth but thin lips, and an uuusual length 

 of head. The constancy of the long head-form particularly struck him, but I 

 could not learn from him of any nursing practice calculated to originate or 

 increase such a development. 



From the various authorities and illustrative examples referred to, it is obvious 

 that a class of variations of the form of the human skull, which becomes more 

 comprehensive as attention is directed to it, is wholly independent of congenital 

 transmitted characteristics. Kumbecephalic, acrocephalic, and platycephalic, 

 unsymmetrical, truncated, or elongated heads, may be so common as apparently 

 to furnish distinctive ethnical forms, and yet, after all, each may be traceable to 

 artificial causes, arising from an adherence to certain customs and usages in the 

 nursery. It is in this direction, I conceive, that the importance of the truths 

 resulting from the recognition of artificial causes affecting the forms of British 

 brachycephalic or other crania chiefly lies. The contents of early British cists 

 and barrows prove that the race with which they originated was a rude people 



