402 



ETHNICAL FORMS AND UNDESIGNED ARTIFICIAL 



Scioto Mound Skull., 



Barrie Skull 



Huron Mean 



19.80 

 20.T0 

 20.48 



If no artificial element was supposed to affect any of those forms, 

 the Barrie skull would naturally be classed with the former in any 

 such comparison ; and even with a full recognition of the artificial 

 influences, for the illustration of which the Barrie skull (Plate I.) is 

 now selected, it forms quite an exceptional instance among crania 

 exhumed within the Huron country. Its markedly brachycephalic 

 character, however, is chiefly, determined by its parieto-occipital flat- 

 tening, with the accompanying parietal expansion ; and although 

 the same may be affirmed to some extent of the typical Mound- 

 skull, yet it is only in certain respects that the two agree in 

 form or measurements. The important difference in the vertical 

 diameters constitutes an essential distinction between them, the 

 Barrie skull being below the Huron mean, while the Mound-skull 

 is considerably above it. Dr. Morton was familiar with the effects 

 produced by the widely extended practise among the American 

 Aborigines of cranial deformation, and did not overlook its probable 

 influence on certain familiar forms of head, which he assumed to be 

 universally prevalent throughout the "Western Hemisphere. Accord- 

 ingly, Avhile selecting the Scioto Mound-skull as most perfectly 

 illustrating the typical American head, he remarks on its peculiar 

 parieto-occipital conformation : — " Similar forms are common in the 

 Peruvi.ra tombs, and have the occiput, as in this instance, so flat- 

 tened and vertical, as to give the idea of artificial compression ; 

 yet this is only an exaggeration of the natural form, caused by the 

 pressure of the cradle-board in common use among the American 

 nation." 



But the vertical flattened occiput, thus referred to as of common 

 occurrence in Peruvian crania, and described as, in its extremest 

 development, only an exaggeration of the American typical form, is 

 by no means peculiar to the New World ; and a comparison of the 

 American examples now referred to, with others derived from ancient 

 British cemeteries, may help to throw new and interesting light on 



