A STRANGE FASHION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5439, 21 July 1879, Page 3

A STRANGE FASHION.

It is rather uncomfortable to hear that in certain parts of France, a fashion exists of altering the shape of the heads of children by compression and other devices. It is impossible to possess so good an opinion of human nature as to wish to see this fashion obtain to any large extent. If you will concede witli

the phrenologist that the shape of the head plays a large part in the moral development, then it must be agreed that any art which can be employed for the modification of human character is something very seriously to be deprecated, in human hands. For take such a man as the late Mr Peace, for instance ; this man might havo had born to him children with heads sufficiently well shaped to justify the hope of their ultimate worth ;. but Mr Peace, having reference to his own successful i career, would naturally wi__i them to be burglars. He might, indeed, have obI tnined his end by diligent cultivation of ; their vices ; but infinite trouble would • have beon saved him by the process of ' altering the shape of their heads to the 1 true burglar contour. It is, therefore, to be hoped that no effort will be made to ! introduce into this country a fashion that ' must, in 1 unscrupulous hands, be attended with the most lamentable consequences., — May fair.