iwciiEK] THE SEDLEC BEINHAUS. 21 



Dr. Diidik describes at some length the appearance of the opeiihigs in 

 the crania wliich he examined, but it woukl seem from his description that, 

 in most instances, postlmmous trephining alone had been practiced. This, 

 of coui-se, proves nothing. In a few cases he describes what seems like 

 cicatrization of the edges 



A more competent observer, however, followed in his footsteps. Pro- 

 fessor Wankel visited Sedlec in order to verify the observations of Dr. Dudik, 

 and examined the one hundred and twenty crania which had been submitted 

 to the latter.-^ Wankel was of opinion that, in every instance, the perfora- 

 tions were the result of wounds not immediately fatal. In two instances he 

 agreed with Dr. Dudik that there were unmistakable marks of posthumous 

 trephining. Professor Wankel finishes his article by a description of his visit 

 to Prague, in the museum of wliich city he found two skulls from Bilin, in 

 Boheun'a, exhibiting evidence of prehistoric trephining. One, a dolico- 

 cephalic skull, presented an orifice GO millimeters by 40, of elliptic shape, 

 and situated in the center of the right parietal bone. The edges were 

 perfectly cicatrized, and exhibited the ivory-like surface characteristic of 

 long-healed trephining. In the other, a mesocephalic skull, the aperture 

 was round and about 40 millimeters in diameter. Professor Wankel was 

 of opinion that these skulls exhibited perfect specimens of prehistoric sur- 

 gical trephining, and goes on to observe that, even to the eye of a layman, 

 the difference between the holes in these skulls and those in the crania of 

 the Sedlec ossuarium was most marked. 



A notice of these two interesting specimens was sent to the Paris 

 society by M. Ingoald Cludset two years before.'" 



Professor Virchow has contributed some observations illustrative of 

 the subject. At a meeting of the Berlin Anthropological Society, in 1879, 

 he described a skiill from a neolithic burial mound, in which the char- 

 acteristic marks of cicatrization were observed in an opening in the right 

 parietal bone. At a later meeting he also reported some discoveries made 

 by General von Erckert in a Cujavian grave near Ziemcin, in Poland. 

 Among them was a bone disk, or rondelle, bearing a great resemblance to 



^'^Waukel (H.). Ueber die aDgoblich frepanirteu Cranicu dus Beinliauses zu Sedlec iu Bolimeu. 

 Mittli. (1. aiithroi). Gesellscb. in Wicn, 1879, viii, 352-360. 



-'Bull. Soc. d'autbroi). do Pans, 1677, 2™= s6r., xii, 10. 



