286 PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY 



the systematizing of sucli artificial forms, that they are of frequent occurrence, 

 apart altogether from such configuration as is clearly referable to the application 

 of mechanical pressure iu infancy with that express object in view ; or, again, as is 

 no less obviously the result of posthumous compression. But, though the de- 

 forming processes designedly practiced among ancient and modern savage nations 

 lie beyond the direct purpose of the present inquiry, they are calculated to 

 throw important light on the approximate results of undesigned compression and 

 arrested development. 



Among the Flathead Indian tribes of Oregon and Columbia river, where mal- 

 formation of the skull is purposely aimed at, the infant's head is tightly bound 

 in a fixed position, and maintained under a continuous pressure for months. 

 But it is a mistake to suppose that in the ordinary use of the cradle-board the 

 Indian pappoose is subject to any such extreme restraint. The objects in view 

 are facility of nursing and transport, and perfect safety for the child. But 

 tho3(i being secured, it is nurtured with a tenderness, of maternal instinct sur- 

 passing that of many savage nations. The infant is invariably laid on its back, 

 but the head rests on a pillow or mat of moss or frayed bark, and is not further 

 restrained in a fixed position than necessarily results from the posture in which 

 the body is retained by the bandages securing it in the cradle. This fact I have 

 .?a'*!sfied myself of from repeated observations. But the consequence necessarily 

 is, that the soft and pliant bones of the infant's head are subjected to a slight 

 but constant pressure on the occiput during the whole protracted period of nurs- 

 ing, when they are pecu^liarly sensitive to external influences. Experiments 

 have shown that at that period the bones specially aifected by the action of the. 

 cradle- board are not only susceptible of changes, but liable to morbid affections, 

 dependent on the nature of the infant's food. Lehraann suppases the cranio- 

 tahes of Elsas.-^er to be a foi*m of rachitis which affects the occipital and parietal 

 bones during the period of suckling; and Schlossberger ascertained by a series 

 of analyS'CS of such bones that the 63 per cent, of mineral constituents found in 

 the normal occipital bones of healthy children during the first year diminished 

 to 51 per cent iu the thickened and spongy bone.* The fluctuations in propor- 

 tion of the mineral constituents of bones are considerable, and vary in the dif- 

 ferent bones, but in the osseous tissue they may be staged at 67 to 70 per cent. 

 It. is obvious, therefore, that, under the peculiar physiological condition of the 

 cranial bones during the period of nursing, such constant mechanical action as 

 the occipital region of the Indian pappoose is subjected to must be productive 

 of pemianent change. The child is not removed from the cradle board when 

 su>-kling and is not therefore liable to any counteracting lateral pressme against 

 its mother's breast. Trifling as it may appear, it is not without interest to have 

 the. fact brought under our notice by the disclosures, of ancient barrows and 

 cists, that the sama practice of nursing the child, and carrying it about bound 

 to a flat cradle board, prevailed in Britain and the north of Europe long before the 

 first notices of written history reveal the. presence of man beyond the Baltic or 

 the English channel, and that, in all probability, the same custom prevailed con- 

 tinuously from the shores of the German Ocean to Behriug's Straits. All the 

 effects of such a universally prevalent practice, operating to produce uniform 

 results on the form of the skull and brain, are scarcely yet fully estimated ; but 

 that it has afiected the form of the head wherever it has been practiced I enter- 

 tain no doubt. One effect of the continuous pressure on the infant skull must 

 be to bring the edges of the bones together, and thereby to retard or arrest the 

 growth of the bone iu certain directions. Where this leads to ossification at a 

 very early period, its tendency must be to Ihnit the direction in which the fur- 

 ther expansion of the brain takes place, and so still further to affect the perma- 

 nent shape of the head. The tendency of the pressure to produce some of the 



'Schlossberger, Ai'ch., f. phys. Heilk. Lehmaun, Pliysiol. Chem., Vol. Ill, p. 



28. 



