THE JAW OF THE PILTDOWN MAN 399 



paring the length of the mandible at the alveolar level he 

 gives 10 r 8 mm. as the maximum length in recent Homo. In 

 the collections under my charge at the British Museum are 

 jaws which, in this particular, range from 101 mm. to 115 mm., 

 the latter the jaw of a Torres Straits Islander, that is to say 

 only 5 mm. less than the Piltdown jaw. The distance from the 

 posterior border of the mandible to the front of Mi in recent 

 Homo, according to Mr. Miller, attains its maximum at 75*6. 

 In the British Museum collections we have recent human 

 jaws ranging from this up to 88 mm., the highest being that 

 of a Moriori. The maximum diameter of recent Homo of the 

 ascending ramus at the alveolar level in this table is given 

 as 46*8 mm. In the British Museum are jaws ranging up to 

 50 mm. In the chimpanzee, according to Mr. Miller, the 

 maximum is 52 mm. Jaws which I have measured in the 

 collection which Lord Rothschild has generously placed at 

 my disposal range from this up to 55 mm. In Mr. Miller's 

 table it will be noticed that his figures are all calculated to 

 accentuate the differences between the Piltdown man and 

 modern man, and the agreement with the chimpanzee. These 

 revised figures lend no support to Mr. Miller ; on the contrary, 

 they place the Piltdown jaw well within the limits of human 

 variation. 



And now as to the teeth. " The two molars," we are told, 

 " show no indication of the beginning of a curve in the tooth- 

 row. The main axis of the first tooth is continued by that of 

 the second in a line passing as far to (the) inner side of (the) 

 condyle as in the Pongidae. In front of the first molar the 

 entire hinder border of the alveolus of pni2 is plainly visible. 

 It shows that the missing tooth was fully as large as in the 

 great apes, and that the toothrow did not become sharply 

 weakened at the point where this conspicuous change takes 

 place in all known Hominidse." ' These statements are to be 

 read with his earlier arguments on p. 5. Here he tells us that 

 " The toothrow in the Hominidae is narrowed and weakened 

 in front of the molars, the change taking place abruptly with 

 (the) posterior premolar. Each premolar is single rooted, 

 and the crown area is less than half that of the first molar. . . . 

 Among the great apes the robust character of the toothrow 

 is carried forward through the large, double-rooted premolars 

 to the strongly functional canine. ... A line joining the middle 



