XVI ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



replaced. This practice by the present generation of what 

 was evidently that of the neolithic age was for the same pur- 

 pose as suggested by Dr. Fletcher, viz, to relieve pain in the 

 head. The "cure" was death to some, but most of the sub- 

 jects recovered. The precise operation of trephining has not 

 been found to be practiced among the tribes of North Amer- 

 ica; but they very generally scarify or otherwise wound parts 

 of the body where pain is seated, or supposed to be. Their 

 philosophy of pain is, that it is an evil spirit which they must 

 let out. The early writers, who believed in the benefits of 

 phlebotomy more than is now the custom, gave much credit to 

 the Indians for this practice. It was to them one of the proofs 

 of the advance of American natives in medical and surgical 

 science, which was admitted while knowledge in most other 

 branches was denied. A suggestion occurs that the custom of 

 cutting of the breast, arms, and some other parts of the body, 

 at the mourning ceremonies of Indians, as of other peoples, 

 may have originated in the idea of letting grief, the pain of 

 sorrow, out of the mourner. 



A STUDY OF THE MANUSCRIPT TEOANO, BY C. THOMAS, 

 PH. D., WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY D. G. BRINTON, M. D. 



The manuscript, or codex, styled Troano, sometimes more 

 simply Tro, was found at Madrid in 1864, in the possession of 

 Don Juan de Tro y Ortolano, Professor of Paleography and a 

 descendant of Hernan Cortez. It was recognized by the Abbe" 

 Brasseur de Bourbourg, after his return from Yucatan, as a spec- 

 imen of the graphic system of the Mayas, and was named b}^ 

 compounding the two names of its owner. It is written on a 

 long strip of maguey paper folded fan-like, forming thirty-five 

 leaves, written on both sides, making seventy pages, and is 

 universally admitted to be a valuable record of the ancient cult- 

 ure of Yucatan. Its full interpretation would probably repro- 

 duce much of the arts, social life, and philosophy of a people 

 for which all Americans must entertain deep interest, and the 

 successful act of interpretation would elucidate points of impor- 

 tance in the evolution of written language. 



