Page Foun 



EVOLUTION 



September, 1928 



to be thick, but no such "bull" neck as liad hitherto been 

 assumed. 



The larger muscles of the temple, between the jaws and along- 

 side the neck were modeled with considerable assurance, for 

 their points of attachment were obvious and even their sizes could 

 be gauged closely from the skull itself. The multitude of minor 

 muscles make a relatively smooth covering of flesh and could 

 be modeled on in accordance with normal local thicknesses. Ex- 

 haustive preliminary studies were 

 made to learn these thicknesses, 

 which were first marked on 

 photographs of the skull for 

 reference purposes and then 

 transferred to the skull-cast itself 

 as little guide pins cut off at 

 proper heights above the sur- 

 face. The final flesh model was 

 then filled in until it just cov- 

 ered these pins, but to make 

 absolutely sure, the thicknesses 

 were laboriously checked and 

 corrected by probing through 

 with measuring needles. All 

 this look months of work. 



The positions of the ears 

 were obvious from the ear 

 openings in the skull, but noth- 

 ing else was definitely known. 

 We have the best of reasons, 

 however, to believe that they 

 were quite normal human ears 

 and they were so shown. The 

 nasal openings of this and 

 other Neanderthal skulls indi- 

 cate a wide nose, but just how 

 wide we cannot be sure, and the 



nasal bones a prominent one. Three- stages in modeling Neandeithal head: 1. Original skull on', whose skull and jaw were 

 lot flat at all. as others had be- pieced together; 2. Skull cast, missing parts restored; 3, 4. Side fairly complete; (3) Homo 

 lieved. ^"d f™"t view of half and half model, basic modeling on left. Neanderthalensis, whom we have 



and 

 Cro- 



and eye lids to fit and thus built up the eye as it probably 

 appeared. 



All this done, he made three plaster casts for permanent 

 records. The first was just plain and bald-headed, suitable for 

 scientific -study of the head shape. The second was also for 

 scientific use, the right half being clothed in flesh, as it were, 

 and the left half having this covering removed to reveal the un- 

 derlying groundwork of skulj 

 eyes, nose and major muscles. 

 But for the general public it 

 had to be made presentable, so 

 hair was added, a suggestion of 

 beard and some human wrinkles. 

 He finally touched up the eyes 

 a bit and stood face to face 

 with the adult male of the ex- 

 tinct Homo neanderthalensis. 

 (See front cover). 



But there is a whole row of 

 these reconstructions. That row 

 demanded three trips to Europe 

 to examine the originals and 

 make suitable casts and five 

 years of exacting scientific la- 

 bor. It consists of (1) the ape- 

 man of Java, Pithecanthropus 

 erectus. of whom there are but 

 scanty remains and therefore 

 more guesswork; (2) the Pilt- 

 down man, Eoanthropus daws- 



outer face modeling on right side. 



He studied the eyes most care- 

 fully. The skull had very large 

 eye sockets, but he found that human eyeballs were fairly uniform 

 in size, however big the sockets might be. He also found that 

 normal eyes are placed just a little above and outside the center? 

 of their sockets, but that they varied nearly half an inch in their 

 prominence. He adopted the average position. But, of course, 

 that did not fill the .socket, so he worked in tear glands, muscles 



Courtesy J. H. McGregor. 



watched him reconstruct 

 (4) the noble-looking 

 Magnon man. quite modern in aspect, whose reconstruction 

 from the excellent fossil remains Dr. McGregor found too easy 

 to be interesting. I am much afraid, however, that his "easy" 

 misleads, for even this last demanded such scientific care and 

 months of painstaking work that most of us would call it a 

 "big job". 



Busts of four races of Ancient Man, modeled by Dr. McGregor. 1. Ape-man of Java; 2. Pilldown Man; 3. Neanderthal Man; 4. Cro. 

 Magnon Man. They represent vaiiims branches, rather than a single ancestral series, of the human family. 



riiis is tlie first of .1 siTifs of actii-les by various autliors on "Scientists at Work", to give tlie layman some Idea of tlie painstaliing 

 labors on whicL modern si-ientiflc coucliisious are based. 



