TREPANNING

Found this in the Sheffield Register, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Universal Advertiser 8 July 1791

Trepanning was a procedure to relieve pressure on the skull (or as some people believed to give a trapped demon a hole to escape from) a hole was drilled into the skull. I haven’t found any evidence yet whether the poor boy lived or died, but it must have been a horrific experience for the young boy.

The picture and information on trepanning was taken from https://www.historyextra.com/…/what-trepanning-ancient-sur…/