28 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 83 



American " Tertiary " crania and bones, such as the Calaveras skull, 

 the Diprothomo, Tetraprothomo, etc. of Ameghino, and others, in all 

 of which the estimates and identifications were found to be erroneous,' 

 and such Euroi>ean specimens as the skulls of Canstadt, Eguisheim, 

 Galley Hill, Tilbury, Ipswich, the jaw of Moulin Quignon, etc., in all 

 of which, it has appeared, the age was much overestimated at first. 

 Human prehistory has its pitfalls, as well as its triumphs. 



The Or,DEST Well- Authenticated Skeletal Remains 

 OF Man and Related Forms 



THE PITHECANTHROPUS 



No finds relating to human prehistory have received more attention 

 and publicity than those attributed to the Pithecanthropus, and none 

 deserved more. Nor are the discussions yet ended. The remains 

 consist, collectively, of a remarkable skullcap, three teeth, a fragment 

 of a lower jaw, and a thigh bone. They were discovered between 

 1890 and 1897 in Java, by or under the direction of Dr. Eugene 

 Dubois. 



Dr. Dubois was appointed to the service in Java as a result of his 

 own efforts. He was already an accomplished anatomist, paleontolo- 

 gist, and student of human ancestry, and he went with the object of 

 searching for possible human ancestors in the East Indies. From 1887 

 he served as a " Health-Officer of the second class " in the military 

 organization of the Colonies, but a considerable part of his time was 

 devoted to a search of the caves in Sumatra and the collection of 

 fossils. Among the fossils sent to him during this period were a 

 pre-Malay skull collected by van Rietschoten, and some interesting 

 mineralized human bones of "Australoid " type from Wadjak. 



In 1889 D^- Dubois came to Java, and in April of that year he was 

 delegated by the Colonial government, at his own desire, " to extend 

 his studies to the Tertiary and diluvial fauna of Java." * From then 

 on until the middle of 1895, the Government Mining Bulletin (" Ver- 

 slag van het Mijnwezen ") carried quarterly a report by Dubois or 

 others on the progress of his work, and it is in these reports that 

 the original accounts of his very fortunate discoveries are recorded. 



* See Hrdlicka, A., Skeletal Remains Suggesting or Attributed to Early Man 

 in North America. Bull, a. Bur. Anier. Etlinul., 1907; Early Man in South 

 America. Bull. 52, Bur. Anur. Ethnol., 1912; also, Bull. 66, Bur. Amer. 

 Ethnol., 1918. 



" Verslag v. h. Mijnwezen, Batavia, 2 Quart., pp. 18-19, 1890. 



