The Mortal Remains of Swedenborg-. 



sibility of either presumption or fraud. As to the scar at the temple 

 it is possible that a careful examination by a competent person could 

 decide with sufficient certainty whether it has been inflicted during life 

 or is due to a post mortem injury. In the former case such a fact 

 seems rather to argue against the skull being SwEDENBORa's, for it is 

 very improbable that Swedenborg has been subjected to such a great 

 violence, which must have given rise to a quite visible disfiguring 

 cicatrice, without having mentioned it in his journals. His biographers 

 also would scarcely have been silent about such a matter. On the 



Figs. 3 — 4. Scaphocephalic skull from the Anatomical Institute of Upsala. Facial and lateral view. 



other hand, if the injury to the skull is post-mortal, no reasonable con- 

 clusions can be drawn from that. It is quite possible that the skull 

 of Emanuel Swedenborg has been roughly handled on some occasion, 

 but that may also occur to other skulls, especially to such as have 

 been dug up from the earth. I have often seen injuries caused by 

 the spade, very similar to that seen on the photos and the cast. 



Since, therefore, these external marks on the skull cannot furn- 

 ish any weighty proofs for or against the correctness of the aforesaid 

 supposition, it will be necessary to examine the anatomical characters. 



The first glance at the photos received from Mr. R. and repro- 

 duced in Figs. 1, 2 and 5 was sufficient to establish that the skull from 

 the old herbalist's shop was an exceptionally fine specimen of the pa- 

 thological deformity which is known as scaphocephaly, and a close 

 examination of the plaster cast showed indisputably that I was right 

 in this conclusion. 



