442 ETHNICAL FORMS AND UNDESIGNED ARTIFICIAL 



Egyptian skull is long, witli great breadth and fulness in the poste- 

 rior region. In its prominent, rounded parieto-occipital conforma- 

 tion, an equally striking contrast is presented to the British brachy- 

 cephalic skull with truncated occiput, and to the opposite extreme 

 characteristic of the primitive dolichocephalic skull ; though excep- 

 tional examples are not wanting. This characteristic did not escape 

 Dr. Morton's observant eye ; and is repeatedly indicated in the 

 Crania Mgyptiaca under the designation, " tumid occiput." It also 

 appeared to me after careful examination of the fine collection in the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, that the Egyptian 

 crania are generally characterised by considerable symmetrical uni- 

 formity : as was to be anticipated, if there is any truth in the idea of 

 undesigned artificial compression and deformation resulting from 

 such simple causes as the mode of nurture in infancy. 



The heads of the Peejee Islanders supply a means of testing the 

 same cause, operating on a brachycephalic type of cranium ; as most 

 of the Islanders of the Eeejee group employ a neck pillow nearly 

 similar to that of the ancient Egyptians, and with the same purpose 

 in view : that of preserving their elaborately dressed hair from 

 dishevelment. In their case, judging from an example in the collec- 

 tion of the lioyal College of Surgeons of London, the occipital region 

 is broad, and presents in profile a uniform, rounded conformation 

 passing almost imperceptibly into the coronal region. Indeed the 

 broad, well rounded occiput is considered by the Eeejeeans a great 

 beauty. This fact is the more important, as we are now familiar with 

 the fact that the artificially flattened occiput is of common occurrence 

 among the islanders of the Pacific Ocean. " In the Malay race," 

 says Dr. Pickering, of the United States Exploring Expedition, " a 

 more marked peculiarity, and one very generally observable, is the 

 elevated occiput, and its slight projection beyond the line of the neck. 

 The front is depressed, or the cranium inclines backwards, while in 

 the Malay it is elevated or brought forward. The Mongolian traits 

 are heightened artificially in the Chinooks ; but it is less generally 

 known that a slight pressure is often applied to the occiput by the 

 Polynesians, in conformity with the Malay standard.' * Dr. Nott, 

 in describing the skull of a Kanaka of the Sandwich Islands who died 

 at the Marine Hospital at Mobile, mentions his being struck by its 

 singular occipital formation; but this he leai'ned was due to an 



* Pickering's Races of Man, p. 45. 



