470 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



That appears to me to be a fact of the first importance far 

 exceeding in scientific value speculations regarding ancient, 

 unknown Asia. 



The second fact which, in my opinion, lends support to the 

 view that the flint implements and actual skeletal remains of 

 pre-palaeolithic man are represented in this country, is afforded 

 by the now famous discovery at Piltdown in Sussex. I con- 

 fess I am somewhat loth to add fuel to the fires of controversy 

 which since their discovery have raged round these ancient 

 human remains. But in my judgment these relics have been 

 so extraordinarily misinterpreted, both as regards their age 

 and significance, that I feel it to be necessary to comment 

 upon them. 



As is well known, the late Mr. Charles Dawson, of Lewes, 

 found at the base of a thin deposit of gravel at Piltdown 

 portions of a very thick and massive human skull, associated 

 with half of a remarkable human lower jaw. 1 This jaw- 

 bone and a very large canine tooth found near it show in many 

 respects distinct simian characteristics, while the skull, what- 

 ever its exact form and size may be, is clearly human in its 

 characteristics. 



Thus we find in this unique fossil a combination of human 

 and simian characters, such as have been looked for by evolu- 

 tionists ever since Darwin first enunciated his famous theory 

 regarding the ancestry of modern man. But all evolutionists 

 would agree that such a form would occur only at a very early 

 stage of man's development, and this is a fact of great im- 

 portance. Putting aside for the moment all considerations of 

 the geological age of the Piltdown remains, and the type of 

 flint implements found with them, we may say with confidence 

 that the whole aspect of the bones, their condition of fossilisa- 

 tion and their half-human, half-simian character, point to a 

 very great antiquity. How does the geological evidence affect 

 such a conclusion ? 



The human bones were found in the lowermost stratum of 

 a thin deposit of gravel resting at about 120 O.D. and approx- 

 imately 80 feet above the level of the Sussex Ouse. The 

 height at which any particular deposit occurs above sea or 

 river-level is in itself of almost negligible value. Ancient 



1 " On the Discovery of a Palaeolithic Skull and Mandible . . ." Charles 

 Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward, Q.J.G.S. March 1913, vol. lxix. 



