ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 218 



NOTES ON THE ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN 

 AMONG SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED PEOPLES. 



[with a bibliography.] 



By Dr. J. H. Porter. 



The accompanying notes are collected from various sources as a sup- 

 plement to Professor Mason's paper on " The Cradles of the American 

 Aborigines."* The time allotted did not permit the compiler to exhaust 

 the subject, but enough is here given to show the practices concerning 

 children in their first year throughout the world, and the varied beliefs 

 obtaining as to the effects of such treatment. In the future the subject 

 will receive more careful and systematic study* 



The author embraces this opportunity to express his obligation to 

 the librarians of the State, War, and Navy Departments at Washing- 

 ton for many courtesies. 



Intentional modifications of the form of the head, although less gen- 

 eral than other fashions by which conformity to an ideal of beauty has 

 been attemped, have, nevertheless, been widely prevalent among races 

 of men, but can not be said to include all the variations from an average 

 .cranial type actually existing in nature. The ethnical classification of 

 M. Topinard (Elements d' Anthropologic Gene rale) displays deforma- 

 tion with reference to race in a manner which fulfills all practical 

 requirements. Deformity is, however, as real when slight as when 

 excessive, and apart from those distortions he has described, from the 

 many which are due to pathological causes, and the yet more numerous 

 deviations from symmetry which unintentionally exerted pressure pro- 

 duces in the incompletely ossified skull, there still remain those varia- 

 tions in the processes of nutrition and growth through which assymetry 

 becomes the rule not in the head and not in man only, but in the homol- 

 ogous parts of all axially developed animals. 



As a matter of fact, and exclusive of the embryological identity of 

 their elements, an ideal head is no more demonstrable than an ideal 

 vertebra; and whatever may be hereafter accomplished, at present the 

 anatomical and physiological constants of neither can be determined 

 in detail. It therefore appears to be inexact to speak of the deformities 

 of an organ whose conformation has not been distinctly ascertained. 

 In addition to this, only a small portion of mankind have arrived at 

 any common judgment on the subject of cranial contour, and wherever 

 a standard is furnished by such a consensus of opinion, this is derived 

 from art and not from science. Both empirical knowledge and physio- 

 logical principles justify the general conclusion that the artistic form is 

 that which is usually associated with superior brain power ; but it does 

 not at all follow that an alteration of outline that would destroy the 

 former would similarly affect the latter. Such facts undoubtedly dis- 



* Most of the bigliography relating to the artificial deformation of children in North 

 America is embodied in Professor Mason's work. 



