278 Professor Daniel Wilson on the 
thropoid of the inferior animals has not as yet been affirmed 
to cradle, bandage, or clothe its young; or to mummify or 
inter its dead. With rare exceptions, therefore, the compara- 
tive anatomist finds their skeletons in a uniform normal con- 
dition, and is justified in assigning a specific classification to 
distinctive cranial forms. But it is otherwise with the natu- 
ralist when he has man as the object of his study. Every 
scheme by which the ethnologist aims at systematising ethnic 
variations of cranial configuration, implies the recognition of 
national diversities in the form and proportions of the human 
head; but before attempting to determine their classification 
and significance, it is important'to eliminate the various ele- 
ments of extrinsic change. These, then, may be stated as 
follows :— 
I. Undesigned changes of form superinduced in infancy by 
bandaging or other custom of head-dress; by the form of 
pillow or cradle-board; and by persistent adherence to any 
unvarying position in suckling and nursing. 
IJ. Artificial deformation undesignedly resulting from the 
habitual carrying of burdens on the head, or by means of 
straps or bandages pressing on any part of the skull, when 
such is continued from early youth. 
III. Artificial configuration designedly resulting from the 
application of mechanical pressure in infancy. 
IV. Deformation resulting from posthumous compression, 
or any mechanical force brought into operation after death. 
The first of those four classes has hitherto been overlooked, 
I believe; yet several remarkable instances have come under 
my own observation ; and especially two examples of strikingly 
unsymmetrical heads, which appear to be clearly traceable to 
the fact that in both cases the mother was only able to suckle 
at one breast, and hence the infant skull, while still in a soft 
and pliant condition, was constantly subjected to lateral com- 
pression only on one side. Even the persistent habit of carry- 
ing and laying to sleep on the same side may permanently — 
affect the form of the infant head. 
In relation to the second class, my observations have been 
directed to the heads of Scottish fishwives and porters, and to 
