Nervous and mental diseases . sides of theskull, and the facts of observation support us in the statement that asym-metry is the rule and perfect symmetry the exception. More than athousand postmortem examinations, the examination of several hundredheads, and an inspection of some collections of skulls, such as that ofBlumenbach, where I have particularly noted this point, together withthe testimony of others, justify me in this assumption. Asymmetry sometimes reaches extraordinary proportions,—often withquite a normal state of brain function, often with marked psychopathicchanges. Outside of
Nervous and mental diseases . sides of theskull, and the facts of observation support us in the statement that asym-metry is the rule and perfect symmetry the exception. More than athousand postmortem examinations, the examination of several hundredheads, and an inspection of some collections of skulls, such as that ofBlumenbach, where I have particularly noted this point, together withthe testimony of others, justify me in this assumption. Asymmetry sometimes reaches extraordinary proportions,—often withquite a normal state of brain function, often with marked psychopathicchanges. Outside of purely physiological asymmetry, we have thatdepending upon defective development and disease. One of the first ofnatures constructive principles in fashioning the skull is the struggleof its contents for volume. Hence, as long ago pointed out by Vir-chow, premature synostosis of any cranial suture will lead to compen- GENERAL ETIOLOGY OF INSANITY. 687 satory deformity. So, too, will arrest of developmen in any center of. Fig. 270.—Cheinocephalus. ossification, or a unilateral aplasia or hyperplasia of the skull bones, orof the contents of the skull. Aside from the deformities of the head which are congenital in char-acter, the diseases which most commonly produce cephalic deformationin early life are rachitis and hydrocephalus; in later life, tumors, exos-toses, etc.; while at all periods of life the shape of the skull is menacedby injuries, from a forceps delivery to a foiling brick. The followingare some of the commoner designations of well-known cranial deformi-ties: Chemocephalus is flat-headedness. In this there is flatness at the
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