On the importance of a due estimate of the different modes and degrees of deformation of the skull, in the study of craniology / by Joseph Barnard Davis.

  • Davis, Joseph Barnard, 1801-1881.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the importance of a due estimate of the different modes and degrees of deformation of the skull, in the study of craniology / by Joseph Barnard Davis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    On the importance of a due estimate of the different modes and degrees of Deformation of the skull, the study of Craniology *). By Joseph Barnard Davis, Med. doct. etc. A devotion of some years' attention to craniological pur 'suits has convinced me, that the norma) form of the skull is more or less interfered with, iu various ways and among different races, much more generally than has hitherto been supposed. The investigations of Jfcr Pentland, of Professor S. G, Morton and of others long since showed, that a great variety of intentional distortions were practised upon the heads of infants, while yet in a tender and pliant state, for the purpose of producing certain tonus of the cranium, dictated and rendered desirable by the caprices of fashion, among American races — ancient as well as mo- dern. The writings of Hippocrates, of Strabo, Pliny and of other authorities frequently mention people of the old continent, who pursued the same arts for conferring distinction upon their offspring. And the subject has excited much interest of late years, in consequence of the discovery of some curious and extremely distorted skulls in Austria and other parts of Europe. The late most distinguished craniological anthropologist of this city, Professor Anders *) From the Proceedings of the meeting of Scandinavian Naturalists at Stockholm, July 1863.