Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-16
HEAT AND HEADS.
II Is uppased THAI the Sun VIII Harden
The Human Skull.

IL Is -uppased that the Sun VIII Harden
The Human Skull.
One OF the most interesting things men,
toned by Professor Virehow, in his little
hos& Just published, entitled "Medical
Remembrances of an Egyptian Journey"
III which he describes an excursion up the
Nile Us far as the first cataract, is that the
broken skulls on the first great sepulchral
fields, dating from Roman times, are as
thick and hard as Herodotus says those of
the Egyptians were in comparison with the
brittle ones of the Persians. The Greek
historian explains this by attributing it 10
the early exposure of children to the heat
of the sun; and in many parts of Upper
Egypt the German travellers actually found
young children thus exposed during their
parents absence in the fields in immense
clay bowls, resembling in shape cham
payne glass with stem, into which they
were put without shelter.
This discovery by Professor Virehow is
interesting, because it at once suggests the
question whether the proverbial thickness
of the skull Of the negro has not been
caused by exposure to the sun, and whether
it is a popularity of savages of tropical
countries that their skulls are thicker and
harder than colder countries. Students of
craniology have never made any inyestiga-
| ton to ascertain whether the skulls of
different races vary Ia degrees of hlriuess.
1t would be almost impossible to make
such an inquiry. As is we'll known, the
human skull increases in hardness from
childhood to maturity and age A miscel-
laneous collection of skulls of any given
people would be Of no value in such an
investigation. To obtain collection of
skulls of number of nationalties, that
should be taken from subjects of all the
same age, TO have them all similarly pre-
pared and in sufficient numbers to make it
possible to draw any conclusions from their
comparison with each other, would be man
ifestly impossible. More attention has been
given to the relative thickness of different
skulls, or rather to their weight, from
which their thickness may be inferred. Of
the large collection of crania in the Army
Medical Museum at Washington the thick
est are those of negroes and Alaskan In
dians. The skulls of other Indians, both
Of North and South America, in tropical
or temperate chimes, and of the Eskimo,
do not appear to be particularly thick.
Among the ancient Peruvian skulls re-
Gently received by the museum, and the
ancient crania collected in Arizona last sum-
mer, there are frequent individual varia-
tons in thickness, but no tendency to I'M
usual thickness.
The conclusion from these facts is that
exposure to the sun probably does not
cause thickness of the human skull. In
connection with this subject it is interest
ing to note that among the Australians the
sinus .frontalis is generally found to be solid
in the males, instead of being hollow, as in
the skulls of other races. This bone in
the Australians generally extends straight
across the head, the lower side overhang-
ing the eyes so that they seem to look out
from under it, while in the North Ameri-
can Indians modification of shape deprives
them Of that heavy look about the fore
head. The heavy sinus frontalis of the
Australians, of course, increases the weight
of the skull.-Aaalyst