Description of different varieties of skulls and of human remains referable to the tenth century, obtained during recent excavations of a large sepulchral mound near Donnybrook, Co. Dublin / by William Frazer.

Frazer, William.

Date:: 1880

Credit: Description of different varieties of skulls and of human remains referable to the tenth century, obtained during recent excavations of a large sepulchral mound near Donnybrook, Co. Dublin / by William Frazer. 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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$first observed in the family buried at Cro-Magnon in Perigord, referred to the ancient Stone Period, or that when the reindeer roamed over the forests of Southern Europe. From this time they are noticed extending through the ages when polished stone weapons were em- ployed ; and out of 200 tibiae collected near Paris in cemeteries belonging to dates anterior to the tenth century, 5*25 per cent, were of this platycnemic form. There were some good specimens obtained of bones affected with chronic rheumatic arthritis. The polished eburnation of the head of a femur, its peculiar shape and osseous growths, afford unmistakeable proof that its former possessor suffered from this painful affection, so well described and illustrated by the late Robert Adams. The number of bones thus affected showed that this disease was not uncommon. There is also a remarkable specimen of depression observed upon the upper portion of the outer surface of a frontal bone. This appears to have resulted from long- continued pressure caused by the growth of some external tumour, most probably a congenital wen of considerable size, or at least one that must have become developed early in the individual’s life. The results noticed of an old fracture of both the tibia and fibula at the upper third are well worth describing. The oblique direction of the fracture is seen, and an enor- mous mass of callus has united the fractured bones into one, obliterating the interosseous space. The upper end of the tibia is expanded and hollow, and was, it is probable, the seat of a local necrosis. Two sacral bones of females were picked up, both of which are very crooked, one half being less developed than the opposite, and the coccygeal termination, instead of being in the medial line is at the side. These appear due to some injury sustained in early life. Portions of the skull of an idiot were likewise obtained; they possess an unusual amount of interest. The frontal bone shows the cranium to have been that of a young person. The orbital openings are placed on a different level, the right orbit being considerably more elevated than the left. The bone itself is imperfectly developed, the entire right half being smaller than the left, and a similar condition is recognisable in the occipital bone. A face such as this individual must have possessed is delineated in Dr. Robert Smith’s work on “ Fractures and$