DISTORTIONS OF THE HUMAN CRANIUM. 407 



II., selected here from those of its class in the Crania JBritannica for 

 the purpose of comparison with the Barrie Indian skull. As seen in 

 profile the vertical occiput is still more remarkable, and materially 

 contributes to determine the peculiar characteristics which attracted 

 the attention of Mr. J. Barnard Davis, by whom it is described. 

 He remarks of it : " Its most interesting peculiarities are its small 

 size, and its decidedly brachy-cephalic conformation. This latter 

 character, which commonly appertains to the ancient British cranium, 

 and even to that form which we regard as typical, is seldom met with 

 in so marked a manner." He then describes the fore-part of the 

 head, with its oblique forehead, pointed chin, and quadrangular orbits, 

 producing the aspect of a face " eminently British," and thus pro- 

 ceeds: "The zygomatic arches are short, a character which apper- 

 tains to the entire calvarium, but is most concentrated in the parietals, 

 to which the abruptly ascending portion of the occipital lends its 

 influence. The widest part of the calvarium is about an inch behind, 

 and as much above the auditory foramen, and when we view it in 

 front we perceive it gradually to expand from the outer angular 

 process of the frontal to the point now indicated. The dome of the 

 brain-case is remarkably equable, and is uninterrupted by any irreg- 

 ularity. The vault of the palate is small and short, but lofty. "We 

 believe we have thus described every noteworthy characteristic that 

 can assist the eye in realizing the original from the study of the 

 figures now presented." Mr. Davis accordingly proceeds to point out 

 the exceptional character of the Codford cranium, owing to its deci- 

 dedly brachycephalic form, but without indicating the special peculi- 

 arity of the flattened occiput, or referring any of its features to artificial 

 causes. On the contrary, he concludes with the remark : " It shows 

 the latitude of form, or variety, among any given set of features j 

 but still far from allowing of the withdrawal of the skull from the 

 race to which it belongs, and without by any means wholly over- 

 ehadowing the ethnical characters appertaining to that race."* These 

 opinions Mr. Davis appears to have retained down to the year 1857, 

 when I suggested the probable artificial source of the flattened occi- 

 put ; and, indeed, to have abandoned any recognition of exceptional 

 features in the Codford Cranium : as in a paper communicated by 

 him to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia that same 

 year, this skuU is specially selected as one of three representatives 



• Crania Britannica. Decade II. PI. 14. 



