629 
In this collection, as well as another from the same 
source, in the British Museum, which was described in his 
elaborate anatomical manner and with his usual acumen, 
by Brofessor Owen, before the British Association, there 
are skulls which exhibit indications of parieto-occipital 
tlattening*, yet M:r HoDGSON assures me that he does not 
know of any practice in the mode of nursing- infants 
among these tribes which could account for it. A cal- 
varium in my collection of Himalayan skulls presents this 
distortion to such a degree, that it might he taken for an 
ancient Peruvian — it exhibits the ’’vertical occiput” of Mor- 
ton. In intancy, the individual to whom it has belonged, 
must have been confined to a position on the back of the 
head upon a wooden or other hard substance. 
On the present occasion, it is not necessary to say 
more of the deformations of the skull effected by art, but 
unintentionally. They are to be met with in most races, 
in one degree or another, yet hitherto have scarcely 
attracted attention. Noav, that their frequency has been 
made known, their infantile origin pointed out, as well as 
their imi)ortance to the craniologist, who should be able 
to discriminate them from natural forms, I have no doubt 
they will be observed more extensively and obtain the 
appreciation they deserve 
IV. Before concluding, I would mention a fourth class 
of distortions, which attracted my notice some years ago, 
when I began to study ancient skulls. I have called it 
Posthiinios Distortion^ as it is the result of changes in the 
form of the skull, after interment, occasioned by the pres- 
*) See On the Distortions ■\\hich present themselves in the Crania of the 
Aneient Britons by J. Barnard Davis, M. R. C. S. E., Nat. Hist. Rev. 
18G2, p. 290. 
