24 PKEHISTOIUC TREPHINING. 



The drawing (Plato VII) shows how entirely the operation in this case 

 differs from the elliptic openings of the French crania. The round white 

 spot indicates where the periosteum had been removed by the operator; and 

 this was done, Broca thought, about eight or ten days before death. The 

 famous surgeon, Nelaton, who also examined the bone, suggested iifteen 

 days.*'^ As no evidence of fracture was visible, the French experts were of 

 opinion that the operation was pei"formed to evacuate fluid in the cavity, 

 but Dr. J. P. Xott, of Mobile, offered the very plausible suggestion that a 

 piuictured wound, such as the known weapons of the Peruvians might 

 inflict, might have necessitated the operation. The incisions appear to have 

 been performed with a cutting instrument, something like an engraver's 

 hur'i/, and not with a saw. 



In 1876, Mr. Henry Gilman, then of Detroit, published a description 

 of ten to fifteen skulls obtained from mounds on Sable River, Lake Huron, 

 and two fragments from Great Mound, River Rouge, 

 Michigan.^^ All of these skulls presented a circu- 

 lar perforation at the vertex, " evidently made," 

 he says, " by boring with a rude, probably stone, 

 instrument, varying in size, in some instances hav- 

 ing a diameter of one-third of an inch; in others, 

 of one -half of an inch, and flaring af the surface" 



At the Detroit meeting of the American Associa- 



riG. 1.- Artifi.inlly pcrfoTatid _ _ _ 



skuirirommouua at Sable Eivcr tlou for tlie Advancement of Science, Mr. Gilman 



(Lake Huron), Michigan ; one- 

 quarter size, read a more elaborate paper on the same subject,*" 



and, at the twenty-sixth meeting of the society, this was followed by 



another paper, entitled, "Additional facts concerning artificial ])erforation 



of the cranium in ancient mounds in Michigan."" Mr. Gilman was very 



positive that the perforations were not analogous to the prehistoric trephining 



observed in France. They were merely holes bored after death, and it was 



suggested by Professor Mason that, like the Dyaks of Borneo, the natives 



^»Bnll. Soc. tVanthrop. de Paris, 18fi7, 2""= s6i:, ii, 403. 



™i\.iiier. Naturalist, Salera, 1875, ix, 473. 



■•"Proc. Am. Ass. Adv. Science, 24tli meeting, at Detroit, 1875, Salem, 1870, 31G-331. 



"Ibiil, 2Gtli meeting, at Nashville, 1877, Salem, 1878, 335-339. 



