PKIMITIVE MAN : II. NEOLITHIC MAN. 283 



But of all the facts bearing upon the religious ideas of 

 Neolithic man one of the most remarkable is the practice of 

 trepanation, and the manner in which this very critical 

 operation was performed shows that these early men were 

 possessed of no slight amount of surgical skill. Trepanation 

 was, as far as the evidence goes, frequently practised amongst 

 them, and this apparently not as an operation after an 

 accident to the head, but it Avas performed upon the living- 

 subject, sometimes even more than once, and most frequently 

 on the young, even on children. This was certainly a most 

 extraordinary practice, especially when we consider that the 

 only surgical instrument available must have been the sharp 

 flint flake. 



The mode of operation seems to have been to scrape 

 the skull gradually until an oval perforation was produced, 

 a similar operation is Ave are told still carried out amongst 

 some of the natives of the Pacific islands in a similar manner 

 Avith a piece of glass; and Dr. Verneau says "Avith such 

 skill that it is very seldom that it is not successful." That 

 the skull was trepanned during life by the Neolithic men 

 is evident, and also that it did not prove fatal, since 

 the wounds and the edges of the perforated bone had 

 healed. 



Various surmises have been made as to the object of this 

 strange custom. M. Broca supposed that in cases ol 

 epilepsy and such like diseases the skull was thus pierced 

 in order to set free the evil spirit to Avhose presence such 

 complaints Avere attributed ; if this was the case then Ave have, 

 as Dr. Verneau well says, another proof in this practice of 

 belief in the supernatural, amongst the Neolithic races. He 

 also mentions some other facts, viz., that Avhilst trepanation 

 during life was performed by scraping down the bone, the 

 skulls of the deadAvei-e also sometimes trepanned by saAving, 

 a method which Avould have proved fatal to the living sub- 

 ject. The fragments of bone thus removed have been found 

 and were sometimes placed inside other skulls than those 

 from Avhich they have been cut ; they were also occasionally 

 pierced Avith a hole and Avere probably regarded as 

 amulets. 



The conclusion to which Ave are brought is that trepana- 

 tion Avas practised with a vieAV to freeing the individual 

 from evil spirits, and that probably persons Avho had been 

 thus treated may have been regarded Avith superstitious 

 veneration, and after death pieces Avere also cut h-om their 



