of certain Ancient British Skull Forms. 75 
nations lie beyond the direct aim of the present inquiry, 
they are calculated to throw important light on the ap- 
proximate results of undesigned compression and arrested 
development. 
Among the flathead Indian tribes of Oregon and the 
Columbia River, where malformation of the skull is pur- 
posely aimed at, the infant’s head is tightly bound in a 
fixed position, and maintained under continuous pressure for 
months. But it isa mistake to suppose that in the ordi- 
nary use of the cradle-board the Indian pappoose is subject 
to any such extreme restraint. The objects in view are 
facility of nursing and transport, and perfect safety for the 
child. But those being secured, it is nurtured with a ten--: 
derness of maternal instinct surpassing that of many savage 
nations. The infant is invariably laid on its back, but the 
head rests on a pillow or mat of moss or frayed bark, and is 
not further restrained in a fixed position than necessarily 
results from the posture in which the body is retained by 
the bandages securing it in the cradle. This fact I have 
satisfied myself of from repeated observations. But the 
consequence necessarily is, that: the soft and pliant bones of 
the infant’s head are subjected to a slight but constant pres- 
sure on the occiput during the whole protracted period of 
nursing, when they are peculiarly sensitive to external 
influences. Experiments have shown that at that period 
the bones specially affected by the action of the cradle- 
board are not only susceptible of changes, but lable to 
morbid affections dependent on the nature of the infant's 
food. Lehmann supposes the Craniotabes of Elsisser to be 
a form of rachitis, which affects the occipital and parietal 
bones during the period of suckling; and Schlossberger 
ascertained by a series of analyses of such bones, that the 
63 per cent. of mineral constituents found in the normal 
occipital bones of healthy children during the first year 
diminished to 51 per cent. in the thickened and spongy 
bone.* The fluctuations in proportion of the mineral con- 
stituents of bones are considerable, and vary in the different 
bones, but in the osseous tissue they may be stated at from 
* Schlossberger, Arch. 1. phys. Heilk. Lehmann, Physiol. Chem., vol. iii. 
p. 28. 
