FUiTc-HEKi CASE OF UNCOMPLETED TREPHINING. 23 



but it limy be mentioned, as illustrating- the growth of interest in the subject, 

 that in France counterfeit rondelles have recently been put upon the market. 



In the splendid prehistoric gallery of the geological section of the 

 museum at Lisbon is a cranium quite unique of its kind.'" It presents evi- 

 dence of an uncompleted operation of trephining upon the left parietal bone. 

 'i'lie groove, made by some cutting or sawing instrument, has nearly reached 

 the internal table, very clearly defining the rondelle, which measures G cen- 

 timeters by 2, and from the numerous scratches on the siuTOunding bone it 

 is evident that the instrument frequently slipped from the groove in the pro- 

 cess. Why the piece was not entirely detached it is useless to surmise. M. de 

 Mortillet Avas of opinion that the discovery rather tended to disprove Broca's 

 theory that the operation was performed by scraping until a hole was pro- 

 duced. It must be observed, however, that there is no evidence to prove 

 that the operation Avas performed during life in the case in question. It is 

 more likely that it was an attempted post-mortem trephining; but even 

 if it were not, its occurrence would only strengthen the views expressed 

 elsewhere in tliis jjaper, that though prehistoric trephining- was probably 

 performed by scraping in the young suliject, and that examples of this 

 method form the great majority of specimens in our museums, yet that it is 

 probable, from analogy, that when performed on the adult it was by saw- 

 ing, cutting, (ti- by a series of punctures. 



The cranium in question was found in the grotto of Casa da Mouva at 

 Peniche, which contains the remains of one hundred and foi-ty persons of 

 the neolithic period. 



In America nothing has been discovered that can be said to belong to 

 prehistoric trephining, except the famous Inca skull brought by Mr. Squier 

 from Peru, and presented by him to the Paris Society of Anthropology. 

 This relic, which consists of the face and frontal bone, is stated by Mr. 

 Squier to have been taken from an Inca cemetery in the valley of Yucay, 

 within one mile of the "Baths of the Incas."^^ 



^Notes sur I'archdologie prdhistoriquo en Portugal, pai Em. Cartailhac. Bull. Soc. (Tautliroi>. 

 (Ic Paris, 1H81, 3""° s6r., iv, 281-307.— Tr<5paiiatiou prehistorique, par A. dc Mortillet. Ibhl, 18»i, o'"" 

 scr., V, 143-146. 



^'Peru. Incitlcnts of travel and exploration in tliclaud of ibe Incas. By E, George Squier. New 

 York, 1877. 8<^, p. 45fi; Appendix, j). 577. It is also described in lUat singularly nnique publication, vol. 

 i, No. 1 (all ever pnblisbed), of the Journal of the Authropologieal Institute of New Yoik for 1871-'72. 



