322 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



brain-case is the only representative of a pre- 

 Mousterian human skull known to us, except- 

 ing only that of the more primitive and aber- 

 rant Pithecanthropus; and, in spite of its 

 obtrusively human features, in certain re- 

 spects it is much more primitive and apelike 

 than any other known skull. There has been 

 a vast amount of controversy as to how the 

 real form of this cranium should be recon- 

 structed from the broken fragments that 

 were recovered. Although no two recon- 

 structions that have been made are quite 

 identical, the defi- 

 nite anatomical 

 details clearly dis- 

 cernible on the 

 fragments leave 

 no room for any 

 doubt as to the 

 general form of 

 the skull, and af- 

 ford no warrant 

 for certain gro- 

 tesque "restora- 

 tions" which were 

 exhibited in 1913. 

 It is satisfactory 

 to note that Pro- 

 fessor Osborn's 

 restoration is in 

 substantial agree- 

 ment with Dr. 

 Smith Wood- 

 ward's, and is a 

 very close approx- 

 imation to the 

 truth, although I 

 think that they 

 both err slightly 

 in exaggerating 

 the extent of the 

 cranial cavity. 



The jaw found 

 with the Piltdown 



skull is the only part that enables any com- 

 parison to be made with the Heidelberg speci- 

 men. Now, although the latter is very 

 massive and of primitive conformation, the 

 structure of the chin region — for there is no 

 real chin — and of the teeth is definitely 

 human. The Piltdown jaw however, is 

 equally definitely simian in most of its char- 

 acters. Some authorities are so impressed 

 by this fact that they claim it to be an ape's 

 jaw, which does not belong to the skull with 

 which it was found. 



The brute strength of the Neanderthal men did not enable 

 them to hold their own against the species Homo sapiens 

 which came after. After restoration by J. H. McGregor 



This is not the place to discuss this ques- 

 tion. But the acceptance of the view that 

 the jaw is an ape's and the cranium a man's 

 would involve the supposition that a hitherto 

 unknown and extremely primitive apelike 

 man, and an equally unknown manlike ape, 

 died on the same spot, and that one of them 

 left his skull without the jaw and the other 

 his jaw without the skull. Not only so, but 

 it would involve also the admission that an 

 anthropoid ape was living in England in 

 middle Pleistocene times, and would therefore 

 invalidate Pro- 

 ~ ^ fessor Osborn's 



conclusion that 

 the lowering of 

 the temperature 

 in Europe swept 

 out all such apes 

 by the middle of 

 the Pliocene, un- 

 less it is claimed 

 that they returned 

 in the Pleistocene 

 But is there any 

 real need for in- 

 voking such enor- 

 mously improb- 

 able coincidences 

 and such drastic 

 rearranging of our 

 ideas of the palae- 

 ontology of Eu- 

 rope? In spite of 

 their primitive 

 form and simian 

 appearance the 

 teeth are human. 

 Theoretical con- 

 siderations, no 

 less than certain 

 remarkably prim- 

 itive features of 

 the brain-case, 

 also add confirmation to the view that the 

 jaw really belongs to the skull. 



If we admit this, it will follow that, what- 

 ever the relative ages of the individuals found 

 near Heidelberg and Piltdown respectively, 

 the latter belongs to an earlier genus than the 

 former. 



As to the route by which the Piltdown tribe 

 reached Europe there is no conclusive evi- 

 dence. Professor Osborn tells us that "so 

 far as present evidence goes it would appear 

 that pre-Chellean culture did not enter 



