FLETcnEi.j RELIEF IX FUTURE EXISTENCE INFERRED. 15 



of an evil spirit which could not be dislodged by ordinary exorcism.''' It is 

 for this purpose, among others, that trephining is practiced to this day among 

 the South Sea Islanders and by some of the Arab tribes of Algeria. 



From these and similar considerations Broca was led to believe that 

 prehistoric trephining was practiced for the relief of convulsions in infancy 

 or childhood, and that a fragment of the skull of a person who had under- 

 gone this operation was worn as a preventive of the like common and 

 alarming disorder. Hence the care with which a portion, at least, of the 

 cicatrized border was preserved in the piece* cut out to form the amulet. 



It must be borne in mind that a primitive people would not be likely 

 to discern ^ny difference, except of degree, between the ordinary convul - 

 sions of childhood and epileptic fits. The former, though alarming in 

 appearance, are by no means generally dangerous, and we can easily under- 

 stand that the surgical operation would, in such cases, be credited with the 

 cure. It is thought, even in our own enlightened day, that the post quod 

 is occasionally taken for the propter quod, in surgical as well as medical 

 therapeutics. 



So far, it may be said that Broca made a ffiir case in favor of his theory, 

 but he carried his theorizing still further. He was of opinion that these tre • 

 phined skulls and corresponding amulets indicated that a belief in a future 

 existence obtained among these primitive races. His argument is based 

 upon the discovery of amulets in the interior of trephined crania. " Wh}," 

 he asks, "was this precious relic placed inside the skull at burial? Was it 

 not a talisman to preserve the defunct, in a future existence, against the 

 evil spirits that had afflicted him in early life? If so, does it not show that 

 a future existence was anticipated?" 



When it is remembered that onl}' three cases have been observed in 



"A curious custom is related by Miss A. W. Bueklaud, which may possibly be due to some legend- 

 ary trace of the belief in the efficacy of troi>biiiiug as a remedy for fits. She observed at Cannes, in 

 the south of France, a number of dogs with oblong patches of red leather stuck on their heads, and 

 ujion inquiry was informed that these dogs were suJijcct to fits, and that the red leather was worn as a 

 means of prevention. Jour. Anthrop. Inst. London, 1861, xi, 16. 



This part of the subject must not be dismissed without an allusion to the story of the birth of 

 Athene, so inimitably told by Luclan. It will be remembered that Zeus, sutferingfrom intolerable pain 

 in the head, called upon Hephaestus to split open his head with an axe. The latter unwillingly obeyed, 

 when from the fractured opening sprang out the Goddess of Wisdom, clad in bright armor and with 

 spear in hand. This is probably the first recorded instance of historic trephining. 



