308 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. I., No. 11. 



ogy, gives in a veiy compact form the facts 

 obtained in regard to the practice of trephin- 

 ing among prehistoric races. 



The first communication on the subject was 

 made by Broca in 1877. His attention was 

 directed to certain crania, belonging to the age 

 of polished stone, presenting curious losses of 

 substance not to be explained by the action 

 of weathering. What, then, was the cause of 

 this, and what its object? Pathological anat- 

 omy and experiment might answer the first of 

 these questions quite conclusivelj-, while the 

 second lies within the realm of speculation 

 only. 



The skulls in question usuallj' had holes in 

 them, the edges of which were partly sharp, 

 rough, and irregular, and partly smooth, ebur- 

 nated, and slightlj' bevelled. In a few the lat- 

 ter condition alone was present. The smoothed 

 edges were evidently the result of cicatrization, 

 the diploetic portion having been replaced by 

 a compact, bonj- structure, thus giving the 

 ivory-like character. Such a process could 

 only have taken place during the life of the 

 individual. Congenital deformity, disease, or 

 injury were the causes which could have given 

 rise to a loss of substance of this sort. The 

 first two are easilj' excluded for reasons which 

 would at once be accepted as valid by^ those 

 who have studied the changes produced in 

 bones under such circumstances. An injury, 

 then, remains to account for this ; and such 

 can be accidental or intentional. Of the for- 

 mer sort those received in battle are the most 

 common ; and had the people of the neolithic 

 time been armed with sharp, cutting weapons, 

 the occurrence of these wounds might have 

 been referable to them. A calvaria in the Mu- 

 s^e Broca exhibits a somewhat similar condi- 

 tion, a slice having been removed hy the blow 

 of a Tartar sabre. But the weapons of this 

 people were chiefly axes or hammers, which 

 would produce depressed fi'actures, usuallj' 

 accompanied by a greater destruction of the 

 inner than the outer table of the skull, — the 

 opposite of what had taken place here, as 

 shown by the bevelling. 



The theor}" which explains the condition 

 best is, that a portion of the skull had been 

 removed by scraping or drilling through it. 

 This would naturally give an oblong hole with 

 a bevelled margin. The bone in the immedi- 

 ate neighborhood being health3', and all signs 

 of re-active inflammation having passed away, 

 it is probable that the operation must have been 

 done long before the death of the individual, 

 and presumably* in childhood. Broca demon- 

 strated that a child's skull could be easily 



scraped through in a few minutes, with the aid 

 of a piece of flint, and that an adult's could 

 be perforated in an hour. A puppy was also 

 experimented upon in the same way by him ; 

 and it was found that the operation was well 

 borne, and the animal made a good recover}'. 

 In man this rude method of trephining is not 

 necessarily' fatal, as there are savage tribes in 

 the South Seas and in Algeria which practise 

 the operation in precisely the same waj', with 

 a good percentage of recover^'. 



This being accepted as the cause, what can 

 have been the object of the operation ? Among 

 civilized people the operation is performed to 

 remove diseased or depressed pieces of bone 

 giving rise to symptoms of compression. M. 

 Parrot has exhibited one skull which he thinks 

 shows such was the case. There is no doubt 

 of the evidence of disease ; but it does not 

 seem to be clearly shown that this may not 

 have arisen subsequently to the trephining, and 

 entirely independent of it. Among the savage 

 tribes already referred to, the relief of epilepsy 

 is assigned as the reason for the operation ; 

 and this is a plausible explanation of its use 

 among prehistoric races. 



It will be remembered, that, in the greater 

 number of trephined skulls, the edges of the 

 opening were partly rough and jagged. Such 

 were evidently made after death, as there is 

 no evidence of any attempt at repair ; and it 

 is conjectured that pieces of bone were then 

 broken away so as to include a portion of 

 the original cicatrized margin, and that these 

 were subsequently worn as ' amulets.' This 

 is called post-mortem trephining. 



The western hemisphere has thus far fur- 

 nished but one case of trephining among pre- 

 historic people. It was discovered bj' Squier 

 in an ancient Peruvian. A square piece of 

 bone had been removed, apparently' by cut- 

 ting, and the patient, an adult, had survived 

 but a short time, — fifteen days, according to 

 Nelaton. 



The thanks of American investigators are 

 due to Dr. Fletcher for placing within their 

 reach such a well-illustrated resume; and its 

 careful perusal will certainl}' repay those in- 

 terested in the subject. 



REPORT OF THE PEA BOB V MUSEUM. 



Fifteenth annual report of the trustees of the Peabody 

 museum of American archaeology and ethnology. 

 Vol. iii , uo. 2. Cambridge, 1882. [106] p. 44 

 fig. 8°. 



This report is chiefly devoted to notes by 

 the curator upon the copper objects from North 



