Trephination of the living human skull in prehistoric times / [Thomas Wilson Parry].
- Parry, T. Wilson (Thomas Wilson), 1866-1945.
- Date:
- [1923]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Trephination of the living human skull in prehistoric times / [Thomas Wilson Parry]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![respect obsidian would take pre-eminence—are aseptic, and this is a point of great practical value of which the primitive operator stood in blissful ignorance. It surprised me at first, in no small measure, to find how cleanly and easily a flint knife could cut through the scalp, and obsidian I found equally as good if not better. At the present day the natives of the Andaman Islands shave their heads with obsidian knives. The method I employed for scraping the trepliine-liole with both flint and obsidian was the following. Having made a V- or Y-shaped incision in the scalp, as is done by the primitive Melanesians, over the selected site of the operation, I scraped as nearly as possible along a single line on the bone with a flint flake, which I held between the thumb and forefinger of my right hand. [Although Sir John Evans believed that our Neolithic ancestors used to haft some of these small flakes, I am con¬ vinced that no hatted implement was used in this case. This can be substantiated by tlie Melanesian method employed in these days, when the obsidian flake or piece of glass is held between the finger and thumb.] This line I gradually con¬ verted into a groove, which soon showed two more or less prominent ridges. The outer ta^e of the skull is by no means as easy to remove in this manner as might be expected. The next step was to attack the edges of the groove with a curved movement of the scraper till a depression was pro¬ duced in the bone, which gradually assumed an elliptical shape. It is now only a question of time and manipulation to convert this elliptical depression into a circular one, and thence, having penetrated the inner table of the skull, to expose the dura mater and enlarge the foramen in the bone to the size and shape required. In only one case can I remember slightly damaging the dura mater, and the reason of this was that my supply of Neolithic implements was limited and I had not to hand at the moment the particular shape I required. It must be remembered that when Neolithic man did this operation he would be bountifully supplied with probably hundreds of sharp, newly cut flakes, and imme¬ diately one became blunted, or was not to his fancy in any other way, he would naturally fling it aside and choose another. The average time taken by me to do this operation on a fresh adult skull was half an hour. Trephining by shell was probably never attempted by Neolithic man in Europe, as our shells are not nearly strong enough to compete with such a substance as flaked flint, of which we possess a remarkable abundance. Primitive man, in the South Pacific islands, most certainly used shell for trephining, shell knives for ordinary use, and shell lancets for opening abscesses. I experimented, however, with an ordinary beach-worn oyster shell, and found I was able to trephine the skull of a 9-months-old infant in about twenty- five minutes, and, to my amazement, with a larger and stronger shell J made a large hole in the somewhat soft skull of a Maori in thirteen and a half minutes. What could not, therefore, be done with some of the powerful shells that are so prevalent among the islands of the South Pacific Ocean ?](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30624009_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
