'i8 The Mahe-Up and the Wordings of the Earth 



the interpretation of the facts presented by the crust of the 

 earth. The first Neanderthal remains were found by some 

 workmen digging in a cave and were thrown out with other 

 debris. This made it impossible for the first scientist who 

 reached the material to know very definitely about the exact 

 location of the fossils in the rocks. A matter of a few feet 

 would be of importance in determining the relative age of 

 the bones. It was only because so much material was sub- 

 sequently found in its original location that anthropologists 

 have been able to build up a consistent interpretation of these 

 remains. When Du Bois found the fragments of his Pithe- 

 canthropus erectus, the different pieces were several yards 

 apart. This made it impossible to tell whether they were 

 parts of the same individual. A similar doubt has been raised 

 regarding the fragments of the Piltdown skull found in 

 England in 191 1. 



As the historian is compelled at times to struggle with 

 a hoax, the scientist has also been confronted with materials 

 deliberately planned for the purpose of misleading or chal- 

 lenging the student. There is a classic story of a professor 

 of entomology upon whom the students played a practical 

 joke by gluing together the wings, legs, antennae, and ab- 

 domen of totally different insects into a " specimen " which 

 they brought to the professor for identification. The pro- 

 fessor glanced at the monstrosity and concluded at once that 

 it was a " humbug." Generally speaking the serious student 

 does not suspect a hoax and takes the material as it comes 

 to him in good faith. The incongruities eventually reveal 

 themselves, however, and by dint of prolonged study these 

 initial difficulties are overcome. 



The Origin of the Earth 



The scientist does not pretend to know directly how 

 the earth began its career as a separate body in space, among 

 other planets and moons and stars. There are many facts 

 that have a bearing upon the probable history of the earth as 



