* The Cafile of Braemar is fituated towards the western extremity of the County State of the BAROMETER in inches and decimals, and of Farenheit's THERMOMETER in the open air, taken in the morning before fun-rife, and at noon; and the quantity of rain-water fallen, in inches and decimals, from the 30th of Sept. 1789, to the 27th of October, near the foot of Arthur's Seat. 219 Efay on the Conformation of the Head in the Inhabitants of the Caribbee Islands, and on fome abfurd Customs attributed to Savage Nations. By M. Arthaud*. W HEN America was difcovered, the Spaniards were as much aftonished at finding men of another fpecies there, as at feeing the earth covered with vegetable productions unlike thofe that they were acquainted with. Reason and prudence required that they should act cautioufly with men whofe difpofitions and ftrength they did not know, and that they thould ufe with referve those natural productions the qualities of which were unknown to them. To study mankind requires information, talents, and attention. People must be seen in a state of tranquillity and peace if we would become acquainted with their cuftoms, their manners, and tempers. But the Spaniards difcovered gold, and their paffons no longer knew any reftraint; avarice immediately fpread terror and defolation, and the different tribes of America were almost totally destroyed before any attempts were made to write their hiftory. No doubt, fome important facts were even then collected, and fome juft obfervations made; but certainly hatred, ignorance, and prejudice, have often fubftituted lies for truths, and calumnies inftead of facts. The love of the marvellous has led travellers aftray as often as ignorance. We generally fee amifs what we view for the first time, and especially if it strikes us with wonder. We dwell on thofe appearances that ftrike us moft; but we are not only often mifled by error, but we defcribe what we have feen in expreffions equally false with the ideas we have etertained. Some inhabitants of the Antilles iflands, known by the name of Caribs, had what feemed a very fingular conformation of the head and it was immediately concluded that fuch con formation was artificial, and the effect of an abfurd custom. I have had an opportunity of examining the skull of one of thefe Caribs and from its general conformation, in connection with the feparate bones of the cranium and the face, I am inclined to believe that the figure of that skull was natural, and that the falfe opinion entertained on this fubject must have arifen from want of attention. I have thought it important to combat this opinion as it has been adopted by the most celebrated men, among others by Buffon, and as we may confider it to be a defect in the natural hiftory of that author, and an imputation on his judgment and penetration. We have not room to follow this author in his attempts to invalidate the facts related by travellers with regard to the customs of different nations in changing the natural figure of the head and other parts of the body in children newly born. He maintains that no fuch cuftoms prevail, and that all differences in the human figure are natural. The configuration of the cranium, fays he, varies in each individual as the features of the face do. Every nation in its ftature, in the expreffion of the face, and in the form of the head, has a certain form and certain proportions which feem determinate. Nature, in varying her defigns, appears to have given men a particular aptitude for every particular climate, and the moft convenient proportions to fuit them to their fituations; or at leaft has made them fufceptible of thofe impreffions which that general caufe would naturally produce. A twofold power continually acting, contributes to give the head the form E e 2 form and dimenfions it is capable of affuming. It is in vain to mould the head of children at their birth, its form cannot in that way be fixed; for nature has ordained that this form fhall be regulated by the impulfe of the blood from the motion of the heart, and of refpiration; and it is from the efforts of these two powers that the head at the moment of birth acquires the expanfion of which it is fufceptible. Thofe who have fuppofed that the brow, the hind part of the head, or the temples could be flattened by boards, plates of lead, or maffes of clay, have not fufficiently attended to the flate of the bones at birth, the mechanifm and progrefs of their offification, and their refpective futures. The bones could not be depreffed in the centre, which is the point from which the rays of the oflification depart, without a very confiderable force, which would often occafion fractures; the tables of the bones which fuffered the compreflion would be approximated, and there could be no frontal finufes. The bones would not be exactly united, and as the compreffion would act chiefly on the coronal future, this would often be found defective. I have feen, in children, depreffions of the bones occafioned by falls. I was lately fhewn a child that had fallen from the height of ten feet upon a pavement: a depreffion, with fracture, was the confequence, which was cured by the application of the trepan. A friend of mine has a depreffion at the pofterior fuperior part of the parietal bone, and the fuperior angle of the occipital, occafioned by a fall he had in his infancy. He is fubject to very troublesome megrims, which feem to be the confequence of this depreffion. Similar accidents have been known to produce coma, convulfions, and epilepfies. But it will be faid to me, Are we to deny facts attefted by ocular witneffes? and do you think to invalidate them by conjectures or probable reafoning? pro I have before me a memoir by a French officer, who fays, he has feen the Caribs flatten the heads of their children by the application of boards lined with cotton tied by three cords to the back part of the head, and this was fuffered to remain for nine days. The black Caribs of St Vincent have adopted the fame cuftom; thofe Caribs that ceed from a mixture with the blacks and the copper-coloured likewife practice it; and lastly, the female negroes who defert to them take particular care to deprefs the foreheads of their children, as a mark of their being born free. M. Auvray has been fo good as to tranfmit to me the head of a newborn child with the above apparatus: this has but one board, though fome authors mention two. the authors at one in the means emBut fuppofing ployed, I cannot fuppofe that nine days would be fufficient for flattening the frontal bone of the skull, nor can I admit that a new-born child could fupport for that length of time the compreffion that would be neceffary. Befides, admitting that the integuments, the brain, and the nerves, had nothing to fuffer from this compreffion, it must be allowed that, if it be fufficient for depreffing the frontal bone, it will alfo be fufficient to deprefs the occipital bone, which ferves to fupport the ligature, or at least it ought to receive the impreffion of the cords and knots which ferve to regulate the preffure of the board applied to the forehead. too obfcure to allow us to take for The origin of the black Caribs is granted from the configuration of their head that the flat brow is artificial. It is faid, but not proved, that fome negroes who had fuffered fhipwreck at St. Vincent were adopted by the red Caribs, that they followed the caftoms of the country, and that, being destroyed or forced the ancient inhastronger and bolder, they at last either bitants to abandon the island. of a Carib that was fent by M. Auvrai,. Upon examining the frontal bone we we may fee how eafily people might be induced to believe the flat structure of it to be artificial. There is a large depreflion in the center of that bone, the arch it defcribes has little elevation, the frontal cavities are fhallow, the fuperciliary proceffes are ftrongly marked, it has nothing extraordinary as to its thickness, the frontal finufes are of their natural extent, the diftance beween the internal orbitar proceffes fhews the nofe to have been broad, the fmall fize of the nafal bones and their excavations fhew that it must have been fhort and flat. In the skull of a Carib in my poffeffion the frontal bone is flat, except in its fuperior part, which prefents a fort of tuberofity, and its compreffion is more evident in the center than at the margins, the parietal bones appear moft elevated in the center and in their pofterior part near the margin. The occipital bone is convex in its fuperior part, and appears flattened and depreísed at the inferior below the firft tranf verfe line which marks the attachment of the mufcles. The depth of the orbits is not proportionable to their openings; the fuperior orbitar plate has a very marked inclination for wards. This difpofition of the orbit, the flat structure of the forehead, the extraordinary fhape of the head by the flatnefs of the occipital bone and the convexity of the parietal bones, the elevation of the zigomatic, the depreflion of the maxillary, and the diftance of the orbitar proceffes, the excavation of the nafal bones and their fmall fizc, and the aperture of the noftrils, fhew that the eyes were large and prominent, that the face was flat and broad, that the nofe was thick and short, that the pofition of the head was inverted, but that there was nothing unnatural in its conformation. The teeth that remain in this fkull are beautiful, and their enamel is very white. The impracticability of flattening the cranium in order to give it an ar bitrary fhape may be geometrically demonftrated; but what we have already faid, is fufficient to prove that the practice is imaginary. Why may it not have entered into the plan of nature to create the inhabitants of certain climates with heads of that fhape which to us appears fo fingular? Such a configuration of the head, is not more extraordinary than the black colour of negroes, their flat nofe and their thick lips, or than the pyramidical heads of the Siamefe, the fmall eyes of the Chinefe, the long ears of the Omaguas, &c. &c. We must not allow ourfaves to be impofed upon by thofe authors who have mentioned the head of the Caribs, for almost all their authorities may be reduced to one only. We may even doubt whether there has ever been a fingle traveller who has obferved the fact with fuch precifion as to warrant our relying on his anthority without examination. We must always remember, that there is a great difference between feeing and feeing well; and it often happens that ignorance, intereft, a multiplicity of other occupations, the ficklenefs of the imagination, and a facility of adopting impreffions which are never subjected to the test of probation, or which are at least never funciently inveftigated, are the caufe that many people who would not intentionally deceive are themfelves mistaken, and propagate imperfect obfervations which are afterwards altered and perpetuated by similar mistakes. |