on the sides it is flatted, but more towards the fore∣parts; and therefore the hind-part of the Head is of greater capacity than the forepart: of which Albovi∣nus King of the Longbeards or Lombards made a Drink∣ing Cup for Festival daies, as Diaconus relates in his Hi∣story.
The depraved and non-natural Fi∣gure thereof is manifold.
- 1. When the foremore protube∣rancie of the Head is wanting; and such persons are counted foolish and mad, for want of Brain, which ought to be most plenti∣ful in the forepart of the Head.
- 2. When the Hinder Protuberancy or bunching forth is wanting.
- 3. When both are wantings so that the Head is round as a Ball, such as the Heads of the Turks and Greenland∣ers are thought to be. And these three depraved figures Hippocrates doth acknowledg.
- 4. The fourth Figure Galen adds, which he conceives may be imagined but not really found, when the length is changed into breadth. But Vesalius saies he saw such an one at Venice, and at Bononia.
- ...
5. The fift way may be added also out of Hippocrates, an acuminated or oval Figure, when the Head rises up like a Sugar-loaf: which shape in some Nations Hippocrates tels us had a great reputation of Gentility, and may be formed by Midwives, when they swathe the Childs Head into such a shape and so preserve it; and at last Nature transfers such kind of Heads from Parents to Children. The same Hippocrates in his Epidemicks, brings in two kinds of thus shap'd Heads, one with the strength of the parts, the other with weakness of the said parts. And such a figure of Heads, is at this day more frequent in some Countries than in others.
But now I wil add other figures which I have observed in many Skuls, especially in Italy.
- 6. When the right side branches out.
- 7. When the left side sticks out.
- 8. When the right part of that bun∣chiness which naturally should be be∣fore is wanting, and the left sticks out very much, in some more. others less.
- 9. When the left side of the said Protuberancy is want∣ing, and the right sticks out more than ordinary.
- 10. When the right part of the Hinder Prominency is away.
- 11. When the left part of the said hinder Protuberancy is away.
And thus I make twelve shapes of the Head in all, one natural and eleven depraved,
The Substance of the Skul is boney, to secure the soft Brain. But in Children new born it is softer then ordi∣nary, and in some places cartilaginous and membranous, especially about the Sutures, and most of all in the mid∣dle and upper region of the Head: and all these for the making the Birth more easie, that it might give a little way when it is pressed. But the Substance of the Skul is.
- 1. Thick, not thin, that it may more strongly resist ex∣ternal injuries.
- 2. Rare not compact. 1. Least it should weigh too much. 2. That it might contain Juyce for nourishment,
- 3. That vapors may exhale.
Now this Substance of the Skul doth consist as it were of a double boord or plate. It is seldom simple and sin∣gle without a Meditullium or middle matter, as I found it in the Dissection of a certain person, and seldomer hath it three boords, But for the most part two as hath been said. some call them Diploas, the outer whereof being unhurt, the inner may be hurt. And each of these plates is commonly polished within and without, smooth and thick. Hence it appears how thick the Skul is, seeing it is every where in a manner double.
I say in a manner or wel-neer, which others do not ob∣serve: for in some places the Skul is single, thin and transparent. without any distance of plates. And therefore some Chirurgeons are deceived, who in taking away the first Plate do think they must so long cut and prick, til blood comes out. The external Plate is somtimes eaten off by the Venereal Disease, and somtimes it sprouts forth Gums by force of the said Disease.
But the rarity or light composure of the Skul appears from that middle substance between each Plate, which they call meditullium. This Substance, I say, is rare or light, lax, and receives little Veins: which also Hippocrates knew, who therefore warns us that the Skul is very easily inflamed, and therefore when the Trepan is used, the I∣ron must divers times be dipt in Milk and Water.
The Surface of the Skul, is external or internal.
The upper External is smooth and even; the lower or Basis, is rough and uneven, by reason of sundry Appen∣dices and Processes.
The upper Internal is hollow, smooth; save that it hath the Marks of Veins, and certain Cavities, wherein the dura mater grows: the lower is very uneven by reason of divers protuberancies.
And every where there are frequent holes in the Skull, very small and placed without order, through which small Veins and Arteries pass, to the inner Cavity of the Bones, and the dura Menynx. But somtimes they are not to be found.
At length, that we may come to the parts of the Skull, we must know that the Skul doth not consist of one only Bone, least by one wound the whole Skul should be bro∣ken in pieces; but of divers: which are fastned together by the Sutures, of which in the following Chapter.
And some are Bones of the Skull, others of the Jaw.
The Bones of the Skull in persons grown to ripe years are eight. whereof two are common to the Skul, with the upper Jaw-bone, viz. the cundiforme and the spongiosum. But there are six proper bones, which make up the Skul it self: One of the Forehead (in new born Children two) two of the Forepart of the Head, one of the Hind-part (in an Infant four) two of the Temples. And there lie hid in the Auditory passages, other six bones, on each side three little ones: the Hammer, the Anvil, and the Stir∣rup, to which a fourth is added called Orbiculare.
And thus there are perpetually in the Skull fourteen or sixteen Bones.
The Use of the Skul:
- 1. To be the Mansion and Bulwork of the Brain, which of it self is soft.
- 2. That through it Vapors may pass.
To the former use, its thickness and hardness is sub∣servient; to the latter its rarity and Sutures.
On the Skul of a Man somtimes Horns grow, one whiles soft, another while hard like Rams Horns; some∣times fixed to the Skul, otherwhiles to the Skin, and they proceed from a thick, clammy and melancholick humor. There are examples hereof in Paraeus, Thuanus, Hildanus, Renodaeus, Zacutus, Severinus, and others; I also saw two horns, one at Padua in a Nunn, another at Purme∣raem in Holland in an old Woman, which was sufficiently long and hard: I have discoursed of these Horns in my new Observations de Unicornu, of the Unicorn.