64 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 83 



Pithecanthropus. The skull cavity seemed to be filled with a mass 

 of vesicular volcanic-like matter. Anyone who knew the form of the 

 old Trinil cranium could readily have taken the specimen for a second 

 skull of that nature. 



However there seemed to be something amiss ; and a view with 

 a magnifying glass showed that the vesicular mass looked more like 

 cancellous bone than stone. Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., whom I called to 

 see the photographs, not only concurred in this but soon brought up 

 an arm-bone of an Indian elephant, the head of which with its rim 

 practically duplicated the Java specimen. An enlargement of one of 

 the photographs to the size of the elephant's humerus made the 

 identity of the two certain. The same day, curiously, came a despatch 

 to the efifect that Professor Dvibois, to whom another set of the photo- 

 graphs was evidently sent at the same time, had made practically 

 the same identification, referring the specimen to the extinct elephant 

 (Stegodon) oi Java. 



A report on the very interesting occurrence was presented by the 

 writer at the December meeting of Section H, American Association 

 for the Adva;icement of Science, and a brief note was published by 

 him in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 1927, Vol. 10, 

 No. I, p. 162. Meanwhile, on December 18, 1926. Dr. Dubois made 

 his report on the find before the Academy of Sciences, Amsterdam, 

 and this was published in 1927 in the Proceedings of the Academy, 

 Vol. 30, No. I, pp. 134-137, 3 figs. Later in 1927 there appeared 

 finally the report of Dr. Mijsberg,' who saw the original, and this 

 bore out completely the above identifications. 



There is therefore no second Pithecanthropus ; but though mis- 

 taken, as many would have been by the very suggestive specimens. 

 Dr. Heberlein deserves thanks for both his praiseworthy efifort in 

 obtaining the specimen and for making so freely available excellent 

 photographs which permitted a prompt and true identification of the 

 bone. 



ADDITIONAL LITERATURE 



Berry, Edward W. The age of PithccanthrGpus crcctus. Science, Vol. 37, 

 No. 950, pp. 418-420, 1913. 



Branco, Dr. W. Die menschenahnlichen Zahiie aus deni Bohnerz der schwab- 

 ischen Alb. Jahreschefte des \^ereins fiir vaterlandische Naturkunde in 

 Wiirttemberg. Pithecanthropus, pp. 98-112. Stuttgart, 1898. 



' Mijsberg, W. A., Over het in 1926 te Trinil gevonden en ten onrechte als 

 rest van het schedeldak van een praehistorischen mensch beschouwde fossiel. 

 Geneesk. Tijdschrift Nederlandsch-Indie, 1927. 



