DISTORTIONS OF THE HUMAN CRANIUM. 403 



some of tlie customs of Europe's prehistoric tribes. The subject thus 

 referred to was'first brought by me, under the notice of ethnologists, 

 in a paper on the supposed American cranial type, read before the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science, at its Mon- 

 treal meeting in August, 1857,* and submitted to the notice 

 of the Ethnological section of the British Association, at the 

 Dublin meeting in the same year.f In this I selected the Barrie 

 skull as exhibiting in a remarkable manner the peculiarities of the 

 vertical occiput ; and after quoting the above remarks of Dr. Morton 

 on the corresponding feature, as it occurs both in the Scioto Mound- 

 skull, and in many Peruvian crania, the paper thus proceeds : — 



I think it extremely probable that further investigation will tend to the con- 

 clusion that the vertical or flattened occiput, instead of being a typical character- 

 istic, pertains entirely to the class of artificial modifications of the natural cranium 

 familiar to the American ethnologist alike in the disclosures of ancient graves, 

 and in the customs of widely separated living tribes. In this I am further 

 confirmed by the remark of Dr. Morton in reference to the Peruvian crania : — 

 " These heads are remarkable, not only for their smallness, but also for their 

 irregularity ; for in the whole series in my possession there is but one that can be 

 called symmetrical. This irregularity chiefly consists in the greater projection of 

 the occiput to one side than the other, showing in some instances a surprising 

 degree of deformity. As this condition is as often observed on one side as the 

 other, it is not to be attributed to the intentional application of mechanical force ; 

 on the contrary, it is to a certain degree common to the whole American race, 

 and is sometimes, no doubt, increased by the manner in which the child is placed 

 in the cradle. "J To this Dr. Morton subsequently added in describing an 

 unsymmetrical Mexican skull : " I had almost omitted the remark, that this 

 irregularity of form is common in, and peculiar io, American crania''% The 

 latter remark, however, is too wide a generalization. I have repeatedly noted 

 the like unsymmetrical characteristics in the brachycephalie crania of the Scottish 

 barrows ; and it has occurred to my mind, on more than one occasion, whether 

 such may not furnish an indication of some partial compression, dependent, it 

 may be, on the mode of nurture in infancy, having tended, in their ease also, if not 

 to produce, to exaggerate the short longitudinal diameter, which constitutes one of 

 their most remarkable characteristics. 



Erom this it will be seen that, so early as 1857, 1 had given ex- 

 pression to an idea formed previously to my leaving Scotland in 1853, 

 relative to undesigned artificial changes wrought on crania recovered 

 from Scottish barrows, and which 1 conceived to be traceable to the 



* Canadian Journal, Yo\. II., p. 406. 



t Edinburgh Philosoph- Journal, N. S., Vol. VII., p. 1. 



t Crania Americana, p. 115. 



§ Types of Mankind, p. 144. 



