332 FASHION IN DEFORMITY xx 



form. 1 In France this is well known, and so common is it in 

 the neighbourhood of Toulouse, that a special form of head 

 produced in this manner is known as the " deformation 

 Toulousaine." 



Of the ancient notices of the custom of purposely altering 

 the form of the head, the most explicit is that of Hippocrates, 

 who in his treatise De Aeris, Aquis et Locis, written about 

 400 B.C., says, 2 speaking of the people near the boundary of 

 Europe and Asia, near the Palus Mceotis (Sea of Azoff) : " I 

 will pass over the smaller differences among the nations, but 

 will now treat of such as are great either from nature or 

 custom ; and first, concerning the Macrocephali. There is no 

 other race of men which have heads in the least resembling 

 theirs. At first, usage was the principal cause of the length 

 of their head, but now nature co-operates with usage. They 

 think those the most noble who have the longest heads. It 

 is thus with regard to the usage : immediately after the child 

 is born, and while its head is still tender, they fashion it with 

 their hands, and constrain it to assume a lengthened shape by 

 applying bandages and other suitable contrivances, whereby 

 the spherical form of the head is destroyed, and it is made to 

 increase in length. Thus, at first, usage operated, so that this 

 constitution was the result of force ; but in the course of time 

 it was formed naturally, so that usage had nothing to do 

 with it." 



Here, Hippocrates appears to have satisfied himself upon a 

 point which is still discussed with great interest, and still 

 not cleared up the possibility of transmission by inheritance 

 of artificially-produced deformity. Some facts seem to show 

 that such an occurrence may take place occasionally, but there 

 is an immense body of evidence against its being habitual. 



Herodotus also alludes to the same custom as do, at later 

 dates, Strabo, Pliny, Pomponius Mela, and others, though 

 assigning different localities to the nations or tribes to which 



1 A gentleman of advanced age lately [1879] showed me a circular depression 

 round the upper part of his head, which he believed had heen produced in this 

 manner, as the custom was still prevailing at the time of his birth in the district 

 of Norfolk, of which he was a native. 



2 Sydenham Society's edition, by Dr. Adam, vol. i. p. 270. 



