THE CRANIUM. 123 



ameter is increased, whereby the head receives a conical form. 

 In many individuals the first diameter is increased, which makes 

 the two sides of the cranium more parallel and flat than usual. 

 The elongation of the transverse diameter is the most common, 

 and that of the vertical the least so. The capaciousness of the 

 cranium is much the same in adult individuals of the same sex; 

 from which it may be inferred that the excess of one diameter 

 is obtained generally at the expense of the other. The male 

 cranium is more capacious and thick than the female. 



The female sex is less liable to variations in these proportionate 

 diameters than the male. Stature has but little influence on the 

 capaciousness of the cranium, as giants and dwarfs have it of the 

 same size; hence, the former seem to have very small heads, 

 while the latter appear to have very large ones, the eye being 

 deceived by the relative magnitude of their bodies. 



The fact seems to be now well ascertained, that continued 

 pressure, or rather, resistance in a fixed direction, made upon 

 the cranium of a growing infant will change its natural form. 

 Peculiar ideas of beauty have induced certain tribes of savages 

 to adopt this barbarous and unnatural practice. The late Pro- 

 fessor Wistar* showed to his class, in 1796, a Choctaw Indian 

 having this peculiarity; and a tribe now existing near the sources 

 of the Missouri, continues the practice of flattening both the oc- 

 ciput and the os frontis. 



In the Wistar Museum we have ten headst of Peruvian In- 

 dians, brought from the Pacific Ocean, nine of which bear the 

 strongest evidence of having been flattened by pressure, on the 

 os frontis and on the os occipitis. The possibility of effecting 

 such a change in the form of the cranium has been strongly con- 

 tested; and Biehat, who admits it, acknowledges that he was 

 unable to produce like modifications in puppies, kittens, and 

 India pigs. The singular change, however, which is wrought 

 upon the feet of Chinese ladies, strongly corroborates the opi- 

 nion of the head being also susceptible of artificial modifications 

 in its form.J 



* System of Anat. 3d edit. vol. i, p. 73, 1824, 



t Presented by Dr. James Corneck, U. S. Navy, to the late Dr. Physick. 



t In an examination of an adult female of this nation, Among Foy, the mea- 

 surements were two inches and one-eighth from the heel to the end of the small 

 toe ; four inches and three-quarters from the heel to the end of the great toe; and 

 the circumference of the ankle six inches and six-tenths. 



