of certain Ancient British Skull Forms. TL 
flattening of the occiput, such as is practised by many 
American and Polynesian tribes.”* In the same Decade 
another skull of the type most dissimilar to this is described 
and illustrated. It was recovered in fragments from the 
remarkable chambered barrow at West Kennet, Wiltshire, 
and its most characteristic features are thus defined by Dr 
Thurnam :—“ It is decidedly dolichocephalic, narrow, and 
very flat at the sides, and realises more nearly than any we 
have yet had to figure the kumbecephalic or boat-shaped form 
described by Dr D. Wilson. The frontal region is narrow, 
moderately arched, and elevated at the vertex, but slopes 
away on each side. The parietal region is long, and marked 
by a prominent ridge or carina in the line of the sagittal 
suture, which is far advanced towards obliteration, whilst 
the other sutures are quite as perfect as usual. The occiput 
is full and prominent; the supra-occipital ridges only mode- 
rately marked. There isa deep digastric groove, and aslight 
paroccipital process on each side. The external auditory 
openings are somewhat behind the middle of the skull, and 
very much behind a vertical line drawn from the junction 
of the coronal and sagittal sutures.” Its extreme length 
and breadth are 7°‘7 and 5:1, and an inequality in the de- 
velopment of the two sides is obvious in the vertical view. 
As the brachycephalic skull recalls certain American and 
Polynesian forms, so such examples of the opposite type 
suggest the narrow and elongated skulls of the Australians 
and Hsquimaux; and he thus proceeds:—‘“ The Ballard 
Down skull bears marks of artificial flattening of the occiput ; 
this calls to mind the artificial lateral flattening of the skull, 
characteristic of the ancient people called Macrocephali, or 
long-heads, of whom Hippocrates tells us, that ‘while the head 
of the child is still tender, they fashion it with their hands, 
and constrain it to assume a lengthened shape by applying 
bandages and other suitable contrivances, whereby the 
spherical form of the head is destroyed, and it is made to 
increase in length.” This mode of distortion is called by 
Dr Gosse the temporo-parietal, or ‘ téte aplatie sur les cétés,’ 
It appears to have been practised by various people, both of 
the ancient and modern world, and in Europe as well as the 
* Crania Britannica, Dec. y. pl. 46. 
