WHOLE VOL. SKELETAL REMAINS OF EARLY MAN HRDLICKA 63 



that a discovery had been made at Java of a second Pithecanthropus ; 

 and almost simultaneously I received at Washington the following 

 letter : 



SoERABAiA (Java, Netherlands, East India), 

 Genteng Kali, No. 12, 

 August 22, 1926 

 Prof. Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, U. S. National Museum, Washington. 



Dear Sir: 



During your stay in Netherlands, East India, last year I was delighted to be 

 present at your lecture on evolution in the building of the Fellowship of Arts 

 (" Kunstkring ") at Soerabaia. You then spoke, too, about Trinil, where years 

 ago the Pithecanthropus was found, and as I am in great trouble now what to 

 do with a discover}' or — better said — a finding I made there, I take the liberty 

 to apply to you with the demand for advice. 



The question is to whom shall I best give away the object I found, and I 

 should be very glad if you would be so kind as to answer me. I myself was 

 geologist about two years before I, now thirty years ago, studied medical science. 

 Since I was almost twenty years medical officer in the Dutch colonial army and 

 am now in civil service here, I always kept up as much as possiblawith my former 

 palaeontological knowledge, nevertheless I remained only an amateur and by 

 no means a savant in this branch of natural science and yet less in anthropology. 



On August 1st, thus now three weeks ago, I made an excursion to Trinil with 

 Dr. de Graaf from Alodjokerto and two gentlemen from the sugar factory 

 Poerwodadi near Madioen. There we got a skull of a primate or man, something 

 like the Pithecanthropus, though I am inclined to believe the shape is more man- 

 like. The conservation is not very good ; it is only a pouring off of the interior 

 of a skull. The occiput is missing, but the two frontalia with the arcus super- 

 ciliaris, the right and two-thirds of the left parietal, the upper part of the right 

 and a little of the left temporal are very well poured off. The interior of the 

 stone is typical porous lava. I suppose the proper bone of the cranium has been 

 dissolved by the sulfuric acid of the lava. At any rate I think the object is very 

 interesting. 



The question is now what to do with it. My first impulse was to send the 

 remains to Holland. Once more I beg you to give me advice. I willingly shall 

 wait for your answer. 



Yours sincerely. 



Dr. C. E. J. Heberlein, 

 Gov't Physician. 



This announcement created, naturally, great interest and was 

 reported upon in the Daily Science News Bulletin of September 

 29, 1926. A cable was sent to Java asking for photographs ; and early 

 in December there arrived a set of very good prints which showed 

 the specimen in various positions. 



At first sight these photographs made a strong impression. They 

 appeared to show a skullcap of much the same type as that of the 

 6 



