Abraham Bogardus1868A Large Head
Engraving
Google BooksThe American Phrenological Journal and Life Illustrated, Vol.47, No.2, Whole week, 350, February, 1868, p. 61.
A LARGE HEAD.
Edward Haycock, the child represented in the portrait, is about five years of age. His head is of great size, having been hydrocephalic in early infancy; otherwise his general health has been good up to the present time. When about three months old his head commenced to expand rapidly, and at the expiration of a year had attained a circumference of twenty-six inches. Since that time no further growth in its size has been observed the disease having apparently suspended its activity.
His mental abilities do not appear to be seriously impaired. He was a little backward in learning to talk, but his memory is excellent, and he seems to understand things as well as children of his age and opportunity. Of course his knowledge is limited, the great size of his head rendering him unable to walk and sustain himself independently, and thus preventing him from much of that personal observation and experiment which children are inclined to.
He has a fine clear eye, a clear and healthy complexion, but his limbs and general frame are small and his flesh very spare. The expansion of the head has occasioned a very appreciable separation of the bones of the skull; the fontanel, or opening in the tophead, is about two and a half inches in diameter, and at this opening the pulsations, as usual, are distinctly seen and felt.
He appreciates keenly any efforts on the part of others to amuse him, and when not embarrassed by the notice of strangers, is lively and talkative. Should there be no further hydrous secretions in the brain of this boy, a sufficient growth of body may ensue to render him in a few years able to balance his large head, and to dispense with the now indispensable assistance of others. Our portrait was engraved from a photograph taken at our request by Mr. Abraham Bogardus, the enterprising photographer of Broadway, this city.
LL/35255
