48 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



have been performed, and which the patient must .have survived 

 many years. 



That no weapon could have produced the openings found in 

 these crania was demonstrated by drawings showing the effect of 

 sabre cuts and of contused blows. A remarkable peculiarity 

 observed was that a small portion, at least, of the cicatrized edge 

 was left on the rondelles and on the apertures in the skulls. The 

 difference between this cicatrized edge, with its rounded ivory-like 

 surface and the sharp edges produced by sections made after death, 

 were easily discerned. 



The evidence (which was very fully given) led Broca to the con- 

 clusion that the operation was performed on very young children ; 

 that it probably had no religious significance, but that it was 

 intended for the relief of fits or other nervous disorders. A like 

 operation is performed to this day by natives of the Polynesian 

 Islands, and for a similar purpose. 



Broca believed that the operation was performed by scraping, 

 and he produced very similar results on the dry skull, and on a 

 living puppy, with pieces of flint. The cicatrized apertures, when 

 undisfigured by post-mortem incisions, are of an ovoid shape with 

 edges widely beveled at the expense of the outer table. Lucas- 

 Championniere produced a similar result by drilling a series of 

 holes in a skull with a pointed instrument, running them into each 

 other so as to enable the fragment of bone to be removed, and 

 afterwards scraping the serrated edges smooth. 



Certain tribes of Kabyles practise the operation in this manner 

 at the present time, the operator, the instruments, and the dress- 

 ings all having a semi-sacred character. It is performed by them 

 as a means of relief for pains in the head, but chiefly after injuries 

 by stones, which are the ready and common weapons of offense in 

 their sterile land. 



Although by far the largest number of cranial amulets and treph- 

 ined skulls now stored in the anthropological museums of Europe 

 have been discovered in France, yet similar relics have been found 



