The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1891-08-07
CRANIUM CULTURE.
AN EXTENSIVE FIELD FOR sclEN-
TIFIc EXPERIMENTS.

An odd Surgical Operation Causes to
Arise the Question, rs Idioey Durable
By s~urgery?'-A Physicians
on the sulject-Future Research.
How many Shakespeare have we
lost BY f-gull pinching: How many
Platos have gone down to the grave as
non compos mentis: Can idiocy be
wholly abolishedg' Thus asks a some
what prominent medical authority and
newspaper writer.
The world of possibilities in the above
suggestion IS the outgrowth Of a recent
surgical operation performed in London
on the skull of an idiot child for the pur-
pose of releasing the brain from the con-
finement Of a malformed bone case. The
experiment was entirely successful. The
subject Immediately began to develop
a Frightened intellect, while evil effects
upon the nervous system were practically
unnosieed.
The problem presented by this result
is n very wide and a very complex one.
If the darkness of idiocy in a few cases
can be banished by lifting the brain
covering, thus permitting the brains ex-
pansion to the limits which nature
doubtless intended. why may it not
prove effective in the great majority of
cases of young children now doomed to
live out their lives in eternal gloom:
To those who delight to wander in the
realms of the fanciful, and trace still
greater effects and results from similar
causes, it viii not appear unreasonable
to say that the conformation of the skull
is, after all, the incident which deter
mines whether a human being is born
to be q Nero OF a King Arthur, a Cleo
patra or a Florence Nightingale, a Napo-
leon or a nobody.
CULTURE OF THE SKULL
There was a case in q Philadelphia
hospital not many months ago which
was not dissimilar to the one in London.
An epileptic was relieved, perhaps re-
stored to perfect health, by an operation
which lifted the bone pressure upon GER
tain nerve centers in the brain. Ger
tainly there are mental idiosyncrasies
inherited for generations where the brain
case varies most remarkably in form.
But when we find q peculiar trait sud
denly bursting out IN 4 Of our chill
dren, a trait unlike parent or grandpar-
ent, are we quite sure that it is not ow-
ing to some modification Of the skull
case? Most assuredly, if it is finally de-
ter1nined that the pressure Of bone on
the brain determines the mental ability.
shapes the character and molds the ten
denotes, we shall have to recast all our
theories Of heredity.
Here, then, is presented a newproblem.
Is not the question Of brain culture
about to become to a greater extent Il
question OF Uranium culture? Ii it can
be demonstrated that an idiot can he
made by pinching q skull. and unmade
by the knife and saw of a surgeon, have
We not q new and wonderful field OF ex-
pertinent before us: DR.. Brinton tells
us that experiments on the lower ami
mails prove that the skull is easily mold
ed by trifing causes; that is, in the
earlier stages Of growth. Darwin found
that he could produce long OF short or
non-symmetrical skulls in rabbits by
training.
Ethnologists affirm that the skull is
modified even by the cradle and the pill
lows on which the infant sleeps. DR..
Jaralld proves from his own observation
that the skull may be modified from the
head being held in an unnatural posi-
ton.
POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE.
If this new line Of investigation can
be pursued persistently and successfully
it will result in disproying the belief
that idiocy in children, outside Of cases
of hereditary mental defect, is a vista
ton upon the children for the sins of the
fathers, and showing that it is an un-
natural but essentially durable physical
condition. The ability to cure idiocy
will therefore depend entirely to what
extent the bony case has closed its sutures
and hardened itself to the brain.
DR.. Maurice, the authority quoted at
the beginning Of this article, in discuss
ing this range Of subjects, a few of
which are embraced in the above, closes
by saying:
The world has of late grown enor-
mously in its tendencies toward the pres
~ervation and merciful care Of the NAL
formed and helpless. Civilization has
badly overloaded itself by merciful ten
deTness toward criminals and diseased.
Are we at last to find relief by discover
ing that crime and disease and idiocy
are all durable? And the next stage,
what will that be? Possibly the marked