28 PREHISTOIMC TiiErnmiNG. 



gives a very clear and interesting account of tlie method of trephining j)rac- 

 ticed at tliat spot.'"' He says : 



A very surprising opcratiou is performed en the island of Uvea, in the Loyalty groui). A noliou 

 ]ircvails that headache, neuralgia, vertigo, and other cerebral aft'ections proceed from a crack iu the 

 head or pressure of the skull on the hrain. The remedy is to lay open the scalp with a cross or T 

 incision, then scrape the cranium carefully and gently wilh a jiiece of glass uniil a hole is made iuto 

 the skull, down to the dura mater, about the size of a crown piece. Sometimes this scraping operation 

 will be even to the jiia mater by an unskillful surgeon, or from the impatience of the friends, aud death 

 is the consequence. In the best of bands about half of those who undergo the operation die from it. 

 Yet this barbarous custom, from superstition and fashiou, haa been so prevalent that very few of the 

 male adults are without this hole iu the cranium, or "have a shingle loose," to use an Australian jihrase. 

 I am informed that sometimes .an attempt is m.ade to cover the membranes of the cranium so exposed by 

 l)lacing a piece of cocoanut shell under the scalp. For this purpose thoy select a very hard and durable 

 piece of shell, from which they scrape the softer parts and grind quite smooth, aud put this as a jilate 

 between the scalp and skull. Formerly the trephine was simi)ly a shark's tooth ; now a piece of broken 

 glass is found more suitable or less objectionable (if we may even so qualify the act). The part of the 

 cranium generally selected is that where the coronal and sagittal sutures unite, or a little above it, upon 

 the supposition that there the fracture exists. 



The semi-religious character of all and everything concerned in the 

 operation amongst the Kabylian tribes of Algeria is of special interest, as 

 it seems to strengthen, by analogy, the theory that the subjects of prehis- 

 toric trephining acquired thereby a sacred character which led to the wear- 

 ing of amulets from their skulls, as already described. 



The curious suggestion has been made that the tonsure of priests is a 

 perpetuation of the ancient custom of trephining. The Abbe Martigny, in 

 his Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, sa)s that the oldest Christian 

 mosaics and manuscripts represent St. Peter with the tonsure as a mark of 

 pre-eminence over the other apostles. It is probable that no weight should 

 be attached to this fact. The picture galleries of Europe abound in IIol}^ 

 Families where tonsured monks of various orders are adoring the infant 

 Christ — anachronisms which did not trouble the old masters. We know, 

 too, that Brahmin priests, of a period long anterior to the Christian era, 

 are represented as tonsured. This does not, of course, affect the question 

 of the possible origin of the tonsure from the supposed sacred custom of 

 trephining, but the matter may be safely left as unsettled. 



The discoveries which have been made of late in mapping out the 

 convolutions of the brain, or, as it is termed, the localization of function, 

 have led to the reintroduction of trephining from a highly scientific stand- 



■""' Native medicine aud surgery in the South Sea Islands, by the Rev. Samuel Ella. Med. Times & 

 Gaz., Lond., 1874, i, 50. 



