426 SUPPOSED PREVALENCE OF ONE CRANIAL TYPE 



give the idea of artificial compression ; yet this is only an exaggera- 

 tion of the natural form, caused by the pressure of the cradle-board 

 in common use among the American nation." I think it extremely 

 probable that further investigation will tend to the conclusion that 

 the vertical or flattened occiput, instead of being a typical charac- 

 teristic, 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 se- 

 parated 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 

 bhe 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 Amer- 

 ican tribes, and is sometimes, no doubt, increased by the manner in 

 which the child is placed in the cradle."* To this Dr. Morton sub- 

 sequently added the further remark, in describing an unsymmetrical 

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

 gularity of form is common in, and peculiar to American crania." f 

 The latter remark, however, is too wide a generalization. I have re- 

 peatedly noted the like unsymmetrical characteristics in the Brachy- 

 cepalic crania of the Scottish Barrows, and it ftas 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 case also, if not 

 to produce, to exaggerate the short longitudinal diameter, which con- 

 stitutes one of their most remarkable characteristics. In the case of 

 the Barrie skull, there can be little doubt that the flattened occiput 

 is the result of artificial compression, of a much more decided nature 

 than that of the cradle-board of the papoose. 



It is not undeserving of notice here, that the example selected by 

 Cuvier, among his "crania pertaining to the four principal types of 

 the human species," to illustrate the American race, exhibits a strik- 

 ingly marked prolongation of the occiput. It is described as : 

 " Crane trouve dans une caveme, pres du Tillage de Ma'ipure pres des 



* Crania Americana, p- 115. 

 t Types of Mankind, p. 444. 



