5. Trephine-holes, indicative of enterprise in operative surgery, should be noted. The regularity of contour and the size of the hole often gives the clue to its real nature. It must be remembered that, in the process of exhumation, injuries closely resembling the foregoing operative wounds may be received by skulls, and therefore the circumstances of exhumation demand enquiry in this connection. Some skulls are found to have been incised or engraved with decorative patterns after death.
6. Craniological descriptions deal with the appearances presented by skulls in each of the five normal positions or aspects depicted in Fig. 1.
In the first view or aspect (Fig. 1, B) the general form of the skull is shewn, and in proportions the cranial case may be either elongated or rotund; or again, if elongated, it may be elliptical (with no great difference in form between front and back), ovoid (when the hinder end is the broader), or rhomboid (lozenge or diamond-shaped).
In Fig. 1, C, the profile line, and its modification by prominent brow-ridges or jaws, claims attention. In Fig. 1, D, the general form of the eye (orbital aperture) and nose (nasal aperture), as well as the relative breadth of the face, are considered. Fig. 1, E, shows the palate, and the number and forms of the teeth are studied from this point of view. In Fig. 1, A, the form of the transverse cranial arc, and any irregularities, such as flattening or the production of a keeled (scaphoid) appearance, should be noted.
Fig. 1.
The five normæ, or aspects of the human skull, viz.:—(B) Norma verticalis, the vertex view; (C) Norma lateralis; (D) Norma facialis; (E) Norma basilaris; (A) Norma occipitalis.
7. The lower jaw is studied independently. The prominence of the chin, the squareness of the angle, the stoutness of the whole bone, and the number and characters of the teeth are the chief points to which attention is directed.
Fig. 2.—Measurement of the length of the skull with callipers (Flower’s Craniometer as modified by Dr. Duckworth).