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.

  • Joseph Barnard Davis
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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    contrary, that in one form or another, or of one kind or another, they are to be met with among the people of every continent and almost of every ' country. But, in making tin* statement, 1 do not confine myself to those distortions which have attracted chief attention, viz. those produced by artificial means and with deliberate intention, for the supposed purpose of improving nature, or of di- stinguishing families by an1 aristocratic mark. I. Among the different kinds of deformation of the skull, probably the first place is due to those which may be called, as a class, Syhoslotic Deformations. These arise from the premature conjunction of the bones of the cranium, 'by the ossification of the sutures. At a late period of life, in the normal state, the cranial bones frequently coalesce. When the brain has ceased to grow, or to alter in magni- tude, this is not attended with any deformity or inconve- nience whatever. It is much otherwise when one or more of the sutures at the junction of the bones of the skull which, in the normal state, are occupied with a cartilagi- nous substance, admitting the deposition of osseous matter at the edges of the bones and the consequent growth of the head, become ossified and obliterated. The premature closure of the cranial bones takes place occasionally at a very early age. I have met with an active, healthy hoy of between 7 and 8 months old, in whom the sagittal suture was wholly obliterated and the singular resultant changes of form of the head had ensued, subsequently to his birth; for his mother affirmed, that his head was quite like that of other infants at birth. It is also remarkable that synostosis often confines itself to one or more sutures and seldom extends, at all events, in early life, to the su-
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