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TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 147 
longest heads ;” and Mela describes the long-heads as being “‘ minus feri” than the 
other tribes in their vicinity. The author conceives that a recognition of this mental 
superiority may probably have suggested originally the practice of infantile skull- 
compression, the people ignorantly supposing that the elongation could be imitated 
by art and would be followed by a corresponding improvement of the mental] capa- 
city. A remarkable passage in the eleventh Book of Strabo lends likelihood to this 
supposition. In this passage, a certain tribe is said to have anxiously endeavoured 
to appear excessively long-headed and to have foreheads projecting over their beards. 
The author commented at some length upon statements in the writings of 
Tschudi, Wagner, Meyer and Rathké, all of whom have endeavoured to prove that 
the Macrocephali had heads of the acuminated form which is found among those of 
the Peruvians. In opposition to these views, he adduced the case of the first Macro- 
cephalic head which had been found in the East, namely, that sent by Asche to 
Blumenbach, and figured by the latter in the ‘ Decades Craniorum.’ This head was 
elongated antero-posteriorly, and was of a wholly different stamp from Peruvian 
pointed heads. The author proved by a reference to numerous instances of an 
exactly similar head-form, that this elongation was a natural shape. He entered 
into a brief anatomical description of the cause of the elongation of these heads, and 
_ exhibited to the Section some well-marked examples ; one of these was the skull of 
_ achild aged three and a half years, whom he had seen during life. In this cranium 
could be seen the central vertical point of ossific origin, from which sprang originally 
_ asingle os bregmatis in place of two parietals. The absence of an interparietal (or 
sagittal) suture at this early age, was considered by those present as a remarkable 
feature of this cranium. But in fact all the long-heads with overhanging foreheads 
have this same constitution of the vertex. It is this original central ossification 
which gives a fixed character to the shape of the middle region of the head, and pre- 
cludes the enlargement of the skull in a transverse direction during the period of 
growth; the skull therefore is obliged to enlarge excessively in some other direction 
wherever the open sutures permit, and the result is a decided elongation fore-and- 
aft. In the organic kingdoms it has been observed that occasionally very singular 
varieties will occur, which seem to be almost a distinct species, capable of repro- 
ducing similar varieties; these, however, disappear, and afterwards reappear spo- 
_ radically at irregular intervals. Now, in several countries of Europe within com- 
paratively few years, many instances of skulls have been observed, having the ana- 
tomical characters described above,—the elongated shape, overhanging forehead, 
 Yerticai ossification. The author conceives that it is more consistent with the prin- 
- ciples of cerebral physiology to suppose.the Macrocephali to have been thus consti- 
_ tuted, than to say that because Hippocrates has mentioned the custom of skull-com- 
pression in connexion with these people, their heads must have been necessarily 
_ acuminated ; for in the treatise on injuries of the head, by the same venerable author, 
_ pointed heads are called by the Homeric term o€oi. 
___ The author conceives that the fact of several skulls of the latter shape having been 
found, some at Kerch, and one at Grafeneck, does not tend to prove the prevalence 
_ Of an artificial custom in later times (€. g. among the Avars and Huns) in that part 
_ of the worid, for the entire number of these heads which has as yet been found does 
not exceed six, and not one of them has been found within atumulus or accompanied 
_ with other bones of the skeleton, while in several sepulchral mounds, near to which 
pointed heads have been found, entire skeletons have been discovered, but with 
normally-shaped skulls. The most recent investigations have shown that the stray, 
_ solitary instances of acuminated and compressed heads found in Europe, may all be 
_ referred to one and the same period, namely that of Charles V.; they have been 
_ brought over from Peru and afterwards cast adrift. These heads therefore throw 
a0 light whatever upon the probable shape preserved by the heads of the so-called 
_ Face of extinct Macrocephali. 
In fine, the author thinks it highly probable that the crania of the earliest Ma- 
rocephali possessed the same shape as that described by Blumenbach in the ‘Decades 
aniorum,’ and that the reappearance of this form as a sporadic phenomenon in 
any parts of Europe in the present day, gives support to this hypothesis ; moreover, 
shape has been found in many living instances to be associated with a superior 
_ degree of intelligence. The leading characters of these heads are :—great antero- 
; 10* 
n 
