Fournier speaks of a cranium in the cabinet of the Natural History Museum of Marseilles of a man by the name of Borghini, who died in 1616. At the time he was described he was fifty years old, four feet in height; his head measured three feet in circumference and one foot in height. There was a proverb in Marseilles, "Apas mai de sen que Borghini," meaning in the local dialect, "Thou hast no more wit than Borghini." This man, whose fame became known all over France, was not able, as he grew older, to maintain the weight of his head, but carried a cushion on each shoulder to prop it up. Fournier also quotes the history of a man who died in the same city in 1807 at the age of sixty-seven. His head was enormous, and he never lay on a bed for thirty years, passing his nights in a chair, generally reading or writing. He only ate once in twenty-four or thirty hours, never warmed himself, and never used warm water. His knowledge was said to have been great and encyclopedic, and he pretended never to have heard the proverb of Borghini. There is related the account of a Moor, who was seen in Tunis early in this century, thirty-one years of age, of middle height, with a head so prodigious in dimensions that crowds flocked after him in the streets. His nose was quite long, and his mouth so large that he could eat a melon as others would an apple. He was an imbecile.
William Thomas Andrews was a dwarf seventeen years old, whose head measured in circumference 35 inches; from one external auditory meatus to another, 27 1/4 inches; from the chin over the cranial summit to the suboccipital protuberance, 37 1/2 inches;the distance from the chin to the pubes was 20 inches; and from the pubes to the soles of the feet, 16; he was a monorchid. James Cardinal, who died in Guy's Hospital in 1825, and who was so celebrated for the size of his head, only measured 32 1/2 inches in head-circumference.
The largest healthy brains on record, that is, of men of prominence, are those of Cuvier, weighing 64 1/3 ounces; of Daniel Webster, weighing 63 3/4 ounces (the circumference of whose head was 23 3/4 inches); of Abercrombie, weighing 63ounces, and of Spurzheim, weighing 55 1/16 ounces. Byron and Cromwell had abnormally heavy brains, showing marked evidence of disease.
A curious instance in this connection is that quoted by Pigne, who gives an account of a double brain found in an infant. Keen reports finding a fornix which, instead of being solid from side to side, consisted of two lateral halves with a triangular space between them.
When the augmentation of the volume of the cranium is caused by an abundant quantity of serous fluid the anomaly is known as hydrocephaly. In this condition there is usually no change in the size of the brain-structure itself, but often the cranial bones are rent far asunder. Minot speaks of a hydrocephalic infant whose head measured 27 1/2 inches in circumference; Bright describes one whose head measured 32 inches; and Klein, one 43inches. Figure 93 represents a child of six whose head circumference was 36 inches. Figure 94 shows a hydrocephalic ***** who was exhibited through this country.
There is a record of a curious monster born of healthy half-caste African parents. The deformity was caused by a deficiency of osseous material of the bones of the head. There was considerable arrest of development of the parietal, temporal, and superior maxillary bones, in consequence of which a very small amount of the cerebral substance could be protected by the membranous expansion of the cranial centers. The inferior maxilla and the frontal bone were both perfect; the ears were well developed and the tongue strong and active; the nostrils were imperforate and there was no roof to the mouth nor floor to the nares. The eyes were curiously free from eyelashes, eyelids, or brows. The cornea threatened to slough. There was double harelip on the left side;the second and third fingers of both hands were webbed for their whole length; the right foot wanted the distal phalanx of the great toe and the left foot was clubbed and drawn inward. The child swallowed when fed from a spoon, appeared to hear, but exhibited no sense of light. It died shortly after the accompanying sketch was made.
Occasionally a deficiency in the osseous material of the cranium or an abnormal dilatation of the fontanelles gives rise to a hernia of the meninges, which, if accompanied by cerebrospinal fluid in any quantity, causes a large and peculiarly shaped tumor called meningocele. If there is a protrusion of brain-substance itself, a condition known as hernia cerebri results.
Complete absence of the inferior maxilla is much rarer in man than in animals. Nicolas and Prenant have described a curious case of this anomaly in a sheep. Gurlt has named subjects presenting the total or partial absence of the inferior maxilla, agnathes or hemiagnathes. Simple atrophy of the inferior maxilla has been seen in man as well as in the lower animals, but is much less frequent than atrophy of the superior maxilla. Langenbeck reports the case of a young man who had the inferior maxilla so atrophied that in infancy it was impossible for him to take milk from the breast. He had also almost complete immobility of the jaws. Boullard reports a deformity of the visage, resulting in a deficiency of the condyles of the lower jaw. Maurice made an observation on a vice of conformation of the lower jaw which rendered lactation impossible, probably causing the death of the infant on this account. Tomes gives a description of a lower jaw the development of the left ramus of which had been arrested.
Canton mentions arrest of development of the left perpendicular ramus of the lower jaw combined with malformation of the external ear.