FLATHEAD. This name has been ap plied to a variety of tribes in north-western and south-eastern North America who practised frontal and occipital compression of infants' heads, resulting in permanent deformation of the skull, especially a low forehead and posterior breadth. The proc ess was not injurious, did not affect intel ligence, and like other habitually practised deformations and mutilations the world over, was looked upon as correct and beau tifying. The effects of course were not in herited. In modern official and popular usage in the United States, Flathead is the designation of the Salst or Salish, the eponymous tribe of the stock (q.v.), in western Montana, numbering 600,