328 Records of the S.A. Museum 



"In the annular, the band extends from a point behind the bregma ver- 

 tically lieliiw the chin, by crossing a circular furrow which divides the head 

 into two portions, these being less decided in the annular than in the bilobed 

 variety. In the 'Toulousaine' the line starts from the occiput, reaches the 

 forehead obliciuely, and there exerts its principal pressure. The macro- 

 cephalic unites the two systems, so that the frontal depression of the Tou- 

 lousian and the post-bregmatic depression of the annular exist there, the two 

 being sejiarated by a bregmatic projection." .... 



In tlie one kind, then, the dresse, we have a shortening of the antero- 

 posterior diameter and a lengthening of the vertical and transverse, thus 

 tending to produce in dolichocephalic skulls a condition of brachycephaly, and 

 -to render brachycephals ultra-brachycephalic. 



In the other, the couche, there is a lengthening of the anteroposterior 

 diameter causing ultra-dolichocephaly or, at least, such a tendency. 



.So marked is the change, as compared with the skull-form in untreated 

 individuals of the same race, that one cannot but speculate as to whether, by 

 a long course of distortion extending over hundreds of years, permanent 

 dolichocephalic and brachycephalic subdivisions may not have arisen from an 

 original mesaticephalic stock. Although such a possibility is regarded as 

 highly improbable it is interesting to recollect that many primitive races are 

 mesaticephalic, and one notes, in this connection, the assertion of Talbot {^*) 

 that even among negroes dolichocephaly is tending to disappear under present 

 conditions, while brachycephaly is similarly^ tending toward mesati-cephaly. 

 Whether or not this is due (if the statement is true) to altered living condi- 

 tions, a mixture of races, or, indeed, to a gradual return to an original normal 

 type, cannot here be discussed. Topinard was inclined to believe that at least 

 some races of brachycephals ma)- thus have originated ; while Hippocrates, 

 in his reference, remarks : 



"I will pass over the smaller differences among the nations, but will now 

 treat of such as are great either by nature, or custom, and first concerning 

 the Macroce])hali. There is no other race of men which have heads in the 

 least resembling theirs. At first, usage was the principal cause of the length 

 of their head, but now nature co-operates with usage. They think those the 

 iriost noble who have the longest heads. It is thus with regard to the usage: 

 immediateh- after the child is born and while the head is still tender they 

 fashion it with their hands and constrain it to assume a lengthened shape by 

 applying bandages and other suitable contrivances whereby the spherical 

 shape of the head is destroyed and it is made to increase in length. Thus at 



