MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
Natural History. Before meeting we had had some cor- 
respondence in which I had expressed my great desire to 
see once the Pithecanthropus originals. These wishes 
had most kindly been communicated to Professor Dubois 
at Amsterdam. Upon my arrival, to my great astonish- 
ment and joy, Sir A. Smith Woodward handed me a tele- 
gram from Professor Dubois inviting me most courteously 
to the Teyler Museum in Haarlem, his home town, where 
he would show me all the originals in his possession. This 
great privilege was taken full advantage of by me and my 
class on July 15. It was the first time the precious spect- 
mens were shown to a scientific man after their long 
seclusion. We found Professor Dubois a big-bodied and 
big-hearted man, who received us with a cordial simplicity. 
He had all the specimens in his possession brought out 
from the strong boxes in which they are kept, demon- 
strated them to us personally, and then permitted me to 
handle them to my satisfaction. Besides the four speci- 
mens attributed originally to the Pithecanthropus there 
was the additional tooth (a premolar), the fragment of a 
curious fossilized lower jaw, and two interesting, Austra- 
loid-like mineralized skeletons from Wadjak. The in- 
terior of the skullcap of the Pithecanthropus had now 
been completely freed from the consolidated tufa that 
filled it before; a cast of it was made, and this revealed a 
very remarkable brain of an unexpectedly humanlike 
conformation. 
The examination of the originals made a deep im- 
pression. It was seen that none of the casts of the skull 
that have been seen in different institutions were wholly 
faithful, and the same was felt to be true of the hitherto 
published illustrations. The originals were seen to be 
even more important than they had seemed hitherto. 
Professor Dubois told us he had about finished a final 
study of the specimens, which was soon to be published; 
and we left, truer and profounder prehistorians than we 
had been before. 
[ 148 ] 
