PERFORATED AND DISTORTED CRANIUM. 43 
and posteriorly, associated with arrest of development of the base of the 
eranium, and obliteration of the cranial sutures. The effect of closure of the 
sutures is apparent not only in the expansion of the vault of the cranium, 
but also in the forcing downwards of the base of the skull in front of the 
foramen magnum, and the consequent deepening of the basal fosse. 
Associated characters are the imperfect condition of the foramen magnum ; 
the infantile condition of the mastoid processes, and the character of the 
occipital condyles. 

Fic. 6.—Canvartum i THE ParHonocican Muvsrum, Untiversiry CoLuecn, 
LIVERPOOL. 
In Fig. 7, the contour of the cranium (c) is compared with the contours of 
the normal Irish skull (a) and the skull of the microcephalie idiot (b), as 
described by Cunningham and Telford Smith. The differences are seen to 
be due to the small size of the basi-cranial axis, and the projection of the 
vault of the cranium. In Fig. 8 a similar comparison is made of the basal 
outline of the cranium (c¢) with the average of two normal European crania (a). 
_ We have been struck with the general resemblance which this cranium in 
its upper part has to the Neanderthal skull, and the fragment described by 
Dubois from Java. If this cranium had been without its under surface, 1t 
would have been in general contour very similar to these two specimens. 
(2) Parietal Perforation—Humphry (6) is the first English author to refer 
to symmetrical perforations. He mentions a cranium in the Cambridge 
Anatomical Museum, possessing parietal perforations which admitted “the 
end of the finger.” 
The first case fully described in 1865 was by Sir William Turner (2), 
from a specimen obtained by Dr. T. J. Maclagan and illustrated by Dr. 
