36 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.83 



The question of the species of the new " Pleistocene cliinipanzee 

 of Java" (p. 15) is undecided; but it is plain that while the living 

 and also the India fossil chimpanzee, in their denture, approach man 

 more than the orang or the gorilla do, the fossil chimpanzee of Java 

 comes nearer to man also in the form of his skull. 



THE FEMUR 



The next note of much interest by Dr. Dubois is found in his 

 report for the third quarter of 1892 (Verslag v. h. Mijnwezen, 1893, 

 pp. 10-14). He here announces the discovery, in August. 1892. of 

 the femur, and gives the form represented by the finds its first siDecific 

 name. The femur was discovered, he states, at the same level as 

 the skullcap and tooth, but 15 meters (nearly 50 ft.) further up- 

 stream; and it is plain to him that the three specimens, the tooth, 

 skullcap and femur, lielong to the same individual, probably a female 

 of advanced age. Through this find it is now clear, he believes, that 

 the "old Pleistocene" Javanese " Anthropopithccus," whose skull 

 shows it to have been the highest of the thus far known anthropoids, 

 had also already assumed completely the upright posture. " Through 

 each of the three recovered skeletal parts, and especially by the thigh- 

 bone, the Anthropopithecus crcctus Eug. Dubois approaches man 

 more closely than does any other anthropoid." 



The skullcap receives here further consideration. Its measure- 

 ments (slightly dififerent from the first) arc: greatest length 18.5 cm. ; 

 greatest breadth 13.0 cm. ; capacity about 2.4 times that of the living 

 chimpanzee and about | that of man. The skull in its form and 

 other characters stands close to the genus Anthropopithecus (but also 

 nears that of Hylobatcs), and is distinguished by its large size, its 

 marked vaulting, and the relatively small development of its supra- 

 orbital arch. The tooth in some respects is more advanced than those 

 of the chimpanzee and gibbon ; in other respects it comes nearer to 

 the teeth of those animals than of man. The femur is remarkably 

 human-like, with a few differences. Its bicondylar length is 45.5 cm., 

 the relation of the thickness of the shaft at middle to the length is 

 as 16^:1. "The characters of the bone make it certain that the 

 Javanese Anthropopithecus stood and walked equally upright as man," 

 and that his hands and arms were free. Considering the apparently 

 late appearance of man (p. 14) " it seems therefore quite possible 

 that man has evolved from this old-Pleistocene Anthropopithecus 

 crectus. And thus is also furnished an adverse proof to the opinion, 

 expressed by some, that India was the cradle of man." 



