472 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 7 



Hamy already knew about it in 1874 when Sanson summarized an 

 article on the subject from the Medical Times for the Anthropological 

 Society of Paris. Hamy could add that in his opinion the perforations 

 made by the South Sea surgeons differed considerably from those 

 made by Neolithic man in France. Thus, although the existence of 

 the practice in the Pacific may have been known in Europe for some 



PRIHISTORJC 

 TREPANNED t 

 SKULLS 



s.pmo 



Figure 2. — Map of Europe showing 98 sites from which some 200 trephined skulls have 

 been reported. (Modified from Piggott, 1940, p. 117, fig. 2.) 



time, the fact that it was still continuing in this remote area seems to 

 have been overshadowed by the current discoveries in Europe concern- 

 ing the antiquity of the practice. Also, actual examples of trephining 

 from the Pacific were slow in reaching Europe. In 1875 Lesson sent 

 to Topinard some surgical instruments, said to be for trephining, 

 which he had collected in Tahiti, but not until 1879 does it appear that 



