J. V. HULTKKANTZ 



roughness 

 and 

 the 

 truding 



Fig. 



Vertical view of the scaphoceplialio skull from 

 Wellclose Square. 



The characteristics of the scaphocephalic deformity are a ridge- 

 like vertex and (at least in the majority of cases) a more or less com- 

 plete fusion of the parietal bones with an alteration of the growth of 

 the skull, so that it becomes extraordinarily long and narrow, often 



with an overhanging front 

 and a prolonged back of 

 the head. Frequently one 

 finds also on the crown of 

 the skull a characteristic 

 of the surface 

 a little extension of 

 fused parietals pro- 

 into an angle of 

 the frontal. (Compare Figs. 

 5-- 6.) The deformity is al- 

 ways congenital. As to its 

 primary causes several hy- 

 potheses have been ad- 

 vanced Besides the old 

 theory that scaphocephaly 

 is an atavistic malforma- 

 tion, opinions differ as to 

 whether it may be regarded 

 as an original derange- 

 ment of the earliest em- 

 bryonal development or as 

 due to ante-natal rachitis 

 or to hereditary syphilis. 

 Pronounced scaphocephaly 

 is a rare anomaly: judging from the essay of Backman {Über die Sca- 

 phocephalie, Anatomische Hefte, 1908), hardly a dozen crania are de- 

 scribed in the whole anatomical literature with a malformation of the 

 same degree as that of the skull now in question. 



It is a curious coincidence that the Anatomical Institute of Up- 

 sala received a few years ago a veritable parallel to the skull from 

 the shop in Wellclose Square. The scaphocephalic skull of Upsala 

 (Figs. 3, 4 and 6) has belonged to a decrepit tin-smith, who had suffered 

 from dementia paralytica and died in a poor-house at Stockholm, aged 

 56 years. Because of his peculiar appearance I procured a death-mask 



Fig. 6. Vertical view of the scapliocephalic skull of Upsala. 



