CiLENTo — Artificially Distorted Skulls 329 



first usage operated, so tliat this constitution was the result of force, but in 

 tiie course of time, it was formed naturally so that usage had nothing to do 

 with it." 



As mentioned aljove, however, it is usually asserted that the deformity 

 never becomes hereditary. 



Among the varied races that inhabit the Islands of the Pacific, both the 

 types of deformity referred to are common, often existing side by side, and it 

 is intended to demonstrate by means of the series of skulls described below, 

 and by papers elsewhere, the main differences resulting from the practice. 



Permission to describe these specimens was obtained through the 

 courtesy and kindness of the Board of Governors of the South Australian 

 Museum, and of the Director, Mr. Edgar R. Waite, who, himself, collected in 

 New Britain in 1918 and took some of the photographs herein reproduced. 



The specimens comprise : 5 skulls from New Britain ; 1 from Mallicollo, 

 New Hebrides ; and, for purposes of contrast, 1 from North America. All but 

 one are skulls of males. 



In New Britain, where the majority of the skulls were collected, the 

 method of compression is a very simple one. The heads of the newly born 

 male infants, at that time as easily moulded as wax, are tightly bound round 

 with a bandage of coconut-nut fibre, which may or may not include the 

 superciliary ridges, anteriorly, and which exerts its pressure posteriorly, on 

 the occipital Ijone. (Plate xxxiv.). 



The result, as one would expect, is the production either of a markedh' 

 conical head ; or, in cases where the pressure falls principally on the anterior 

 and posterior poles, a vertical occijiut. This form is chiefly seen among the 

 Tahitians, Malays, some of the New Hebrideans, and the inhabitants of 

 Waigiou Is. and Warrior Is. 



The process is a long one, the bandages often being retained until the 

 child is able to walk, and not infrequently it is fatal. Kane, in his "Wanderings," 

 says : "It might be supposed that from the extent to which this is carried, 

 that the operation would be attended with great suffering, but I never heard 

 the infants crying or moaning, although I have seen their eyes seemingly 

 starting out of the sockets from the great pressure. But, on the contrary, 

 when the thongs were loosened and the pads removed I have noticed them 

 cry until they were replaced. From the apparent dulness of the children 

 whilst under the pressure, I should imagine that a state of torpor or insensi- 

 bility is induced and that the return to consciousness by its removal must 

 naturally be followed by a sense of pain." 



