OF THE BUREAU OP ETHNOLOGY. XV 



dition, the whole sum of present knowledge concerning these 

 enigmatical inscriptions of antiquity and the objects related to 

 them, presenting in orderly arrangement a mass of valuable 

 information never before collected. His suggestions toward a 

 solution of the problem are cautious and judicious. 



ON PREHISTORIC TREPHINING AND CRANIAL AMULETS, 

 BY ROBERT FLETCHER, M. R. C. S. ENG., ACT. ASST. SUR- 

 GEON, U. S. ARMY. 



The subject of this paper is a problem which has occupied 

 physiologists and anthropologists for a number of years. Hu- 

 man skulls of the neolithic age have been discovered in dol- 

 mens and other ancient depositories, with portions removed 

 showing such evidence of natural cicatrization as to prove that 

 the operation of trephining was performed during life and some- 

 times has ended many years before death. Also separated por- 

 tions of such skulls adjoining a segment of the original aper- 

 ture were found, named from their form rondelles, and later 

 considered to be amulets. This latter practice has been termed 

 posthumous trephining. 



Dr. Fletcher contributes an exhaustive review of the whole 

 evidence on the subject, together with an examination of the 

 theories entertained and the method of trephining practiced in 

 modern times by uncivilized tribes. He presents, as his own 

 deduction from the evidence, the theory that the object of pre- 

 historic trephining was to relieve disease of the brain, injury 

 of the skull, epilepsy, or convulsions, and that it was performed 

 by scraping. A remarkable confirmation of his views has been 

 made known since the publication of his paper by the mention 

 in "Samoa" by George Turner, LL. D. [London, 1884], of 

 the practice as existing but a few years ago in the group of 

 volcanic islands in Central Polynesia long known as Navi- 

 gator's Islands, but correctly termed Samoa. The operation 

 there was to slip up and fold over the scalp, and to scrape 

 the cranial bone with a fine-edged shell until the dura mater 

 was reached. Very little blood was allowed to escape. In 

 some cases the aperture was covered over with a thin piece 

 of cocoanut shell; in other cases the incised scalp was simply 



