Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/79

 to their height, but in many respects women are unquestionably superior to men.

The symmetry of the two sides of the head is not always preserved. The celebrated anatomist, Bichat, who, though dying at the early age of thirty-one, had already achieved world-wide fame by his medical discoveries, was wont to maintain that in such instances the mental faculties must be impaired. But he proved in his own person that his view was untenable, for on an examination of his body after death, one hemisphere of the brain was found decidedly larger than the other.

Some years ago we had under our care a child which was in excellent health, but in whom the left side of the head was larger than the right. We counselled delay, and since then the skull has gradually assumed a more correct shape, and the mind is entirely sound. In such instances, unless nature acted soon, we should not hesitate to use judiciously regulated pressure. Every one knows there are some savage tribes who flatten or elongate the heads of their infants without ill results. At a tender age the bones of the skull will readily adapt themselves to a mould, and that without injury to the delicate parts within.

A common disease of children, causing sad deformity of the head, is known as "water on the brain," or hydrocephalus. This is a serious complaint, and requires prompt medical assistance.