pericranium

plural pericraniums · plural pericrania

1. anatomyThe membrane (or periosteum) which covers the outer surface of the skull.

   After making the incision, the pericranium must be raised a little from the bone with the edge of the knife, to clear the bone, and the scalprum employed.

   1819, Bartholomew Parr, The London Medical Dictionary

2. archaichumorousThe head, skull; one's mind.

   Now, Mrs Honour had unluckily poured so much of this liquid fire down her throat, that the smoke of it began to ascend into her pericranium, and blinded the eyes of Reason […]

   1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 411

   1 more example

   If any Man for that reaſon has an Inclination to divert himſelf, and Sail with me round the Globe, to ſuperviſe almoſt all the Conditions of Humane Life, without being infected with the Vanities, and Vices that attend such a Whimſical Perambulation; let him follow me, who am going to Relate it in a Stile, and Language, proper to the Variety of the Subject: For as the Caprichio came Naturally into my Pericranium, I am reſolv’d to purſue it through Thick and Thin, to enlarge my Capacity for a Man of Buſineſs.

   1700, Tom Brown, Amusements Serious and Comical, calculated for the Meridian of London, page 10