18 PREHISTORIC TREPDINING. 



incomplete trephining by racJaf/e, or scraping. This modification of the 

 process of trephining consisted in removing the outer table of the skull by 

 scraping, leaving the inner or vitreous table intact. Altogether some twenty 

 specimens of the kind have been collected. What the object was of this 

 incomplete operation it is difficult to divine. Possibly the malady was 

 relieved and the further process rendered unnecessary. 



In 1603 there was published in Lyons a book which is now excessively 

 rare. Its title was: Traicte de I'c'pilepsie, maladie vulgairement appelee au 

 pays de Provence, la goutette aux petits enfants. Par Jehan Taxil. 8°. 

 The writer evidently confounded convulsions with epilepsy, the latter disease 

 not attacking little children, rarely, indeed, developing itself before the tenth 

 year. The remedy he prescribes is scraping away a portion of -the outer 

 table of the skull. Sometimes the inner table, also, was removed by the 

 exfoliative trepan. This reproduction of a prehistoric usage may perhaps 

 be cited as u curious instance of atavism in surgery. 



In 1878 M. Prunieres made some extetisive researches in the caverns 

 of Beaumes-Chaudes (La Lo^ere), and found more than sixty specimens of 

 trephined skulls and cranial amulets. In three of these there was evidence 

 of the operation having been twice performed on the same subject.'^ 



In 1880 M. Mauvoisin found in some artificial grottoes near Baye sev- 

 eral crania of the neolithic age, of which two exhibited cicatrized ojwnings 

 Upon one of them post-mortem sections had been made in the usual manner.-'' 



A recent and very interesting contribution to our knowledge of the 

 subject is to be found in a paper read before the Paris Society of Anthro- 

 pology by M. Parrot.-'^ It describes a cranium found in a grotto of the neo- 

 lithic period at Bray-sur-Seine (Marne). The frontal and both parietal 

 bones exhibit the consequences of extensive disease. Depressions exist, su( h 

 as would be produced, M. Parrot says, by pressing the thumb into soft 

 putty. On the left parietal a small island of undiseased bone stands up in 

 the center of the depressed portion, forming a strong contrast. The bone 



=3 Bull. Soc. (I'anthrop. do Paris, 1678, S"" s<5r., i, 211. 



s-</6id., 1880, 3"«= S(5r., iii, 10. 



=-^Crauo trouv(S dans uue grotto do I'dpoqne de la iiicrre i)olie jl Br.ny-sur-Sfine (Marne), avec inio 

 quarantaine do sqnelottes, baches polies, poinf ons on os, colliers et orneuients eu cotniilles. IbUh, 1881, 

 •,;"«> s(5r., iv, 104-108. 



