“There are lots of good reasons for making a hole in someone’s head, and in a neurosurgeon’s hands it is not a risky procedure, but for someone doing it themselves the risks are huge.”
This advice, from the British Medical Journal (BMJ, 320(7235): 602.), is very probably as sound today as when it was published in March 2000. For those who want to read more about the history of cranial boring (self-drilled and otherwise) look no further than the definitive book by Charles G Gross, ‘A Hole in the Head : More Tales in the History of Neuroscience’, 367 pages, The MIT Press, 2009. Significant extracts of which may be found here.
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The picture above is a detail from an illustration plate found in some editions of :