Abstract
Trephining in New Britain AN account of trephining methods employed by the natives of New Britain during tribal wars is contributed by J. L. Meacher, of Frankston, Victoria, Australia, to the Brit. Med. J. (No. 4156; Aug. 31, 1940). The observations were made and communicated to him by Mrs. Parkinson, who settled there sixty years ago. Skulls showing healed trephine wounds have been deposited by her in the Australian Museum of Anatomy. The operator first washes the wound with coconut milk and cuts the skin in the middle of the wound with a bamboo knife, dividing the skin into two halves. The wound is then scraped round with a black stone which “falls down from lightning”,, that is, a meteorite. The operator then blows into the wound through a bamboo pipe fourteen inches long to discover if there are any small pieces of bone there. A strip of coconut shell four or five inches long is used to extract pieces of bone. Coconut milk is used to wash the wound while bone is being extracted. The scalp flaps are then replaced and sewn up with a needle made from the wing-bone of a flying-fox and banana fibre thread. The wound is covered with a banana leaf, and over that the skin of the banana flower. To prevent air from getting into the wound, a paste of chewed pepper, lime and soft betel-nut is placed over the leaves. The whofe head is covered with taro leaf and big round leaves of a bush called paba. A frame worked like a net protects the head. The patient is kept on a soft diet to obviate moving the jaws, while he must lie quiet for three days after which the doctor removes the frame to examine the wound. In case of malaise the wound is opened up, blown upon and scraped to remove fragments of bone previously overlooked. When a week has passed without pain the cure is tested by the eating of an old hard piece of coconut. Absence of pain indicates that no more pieces of bone are left, and the relatives are bidden to prepare a feast as the operator is about to remove the frame. Injury to the brain is treated by scraping the injured part and the insertion of a pad of mal (pounded wood of a small tree) which is left permanently in the wound. A pad of mal is also wrapped over the wound until it heals. [A description of trephining in New Britain was communicated to the Anthropological Institute in 1901 by W. Crum and Sir Victor Horsley, see J. Anthrop. Inst., 32; 1902.]
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Research Items. Nature 146, 433–434 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146433a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146433a0