December 23, 19 15] 



NATURE 



451 



scribes the circumstances in which undoubted 

 Neolithic remains were found in the megalithic 

 monument of Coldrum, Kent, and then deals with 

 several other examples, including the famous 

 Tilbury skeleton, which he refers to the beginning- 

 of the Neolithic period. He next considers some 

 of the well-attested human remains from the latest 

 Palaeolithic deposits, such as the skeleton from 

 Paviland cave, Glamorganshire, and the well- 

 known skulls from Engis, near Li^ge, and from 

 Cromagnon in the Dordogne valley, France. 

 These also are shown to agree with the corre- 

 sponding parts of existing European man ; 

 though certain skeletons found in the Grimaldi 

 caves, near Mentone, which seem to belong either 

 to the same or to a closely-allied race, differ a 

 little from all European skeletons, and exhibit 

 some negroid features. In the skulls, however, 

 |lhe right and left eminences of the forehead are 

 not fused together into a peculiar single boss as 

 |?s the case in typical negroes. Prof. Keith there- 

 fore thinks that the Grimaldi type may, perhaps, 

 be most nearly represented in the modern world, 

 not by negroes but by the tall races of the Punjab, 

 India. H'e also assigns to the late Palasolithic 

 period a skeleton from Hailing, Kent, skeletons 

 from the Cheddar . caves and Cissbury, a skull 

 from a cave at Langwith, Derbyshire, and other 

 fragments about the age of which geologists are 

 by no means agreed. None of these remains ex- 

 hibit any essential differences from modern 

 English human skeletons, and it is very uncertain 

 how many of them have been introduced into 

 Palaeolithic deposits by comparatively recent 

 burial. Prof. Keith, indeed, soon proceeds to 

 forfeit confidence in his conclusions by the dog- 

 matic manner in which he accepts remains of 

 doubtful authenticity, such as the much-discussed 

 skeletons from Galley Hill (Kent) and Ipswich. 

 He even states that he regards the Palseolithic 

 age of the Galley Hill skeleton as a certainty 

 (p. 250). No geologist would do more than place 

 such remains in a "suspense account," and the 

 majority would probably ignore them altogether. 

 The concise chapters on Neanderthal man give 

 m excellent summary of the latest researches on 

 this strange extinct species, and Prof. Keith is 

 low of opinion that he cannot be included in the 

 lirect ancestry of modern man. The massive 

 jandible of Heidelberg man is considered to re- 

 present "a primitive variety" of the Neanderthal 

 ice. Evidence of fossil man from Africa and 

 Lsia is described as disappointing, but Pithecan- 

 iropus is considered to be one of the Miocene 

 ^pes of ancestral man which survived to a later 

 late on the island of Java. 

 After a brief reference to the unsatisfactory 

 NO. 2408, VOL. 96] 



nature of the discoveries of fossil man in North 

 and' South America, Prof. Keith devotes the re- 

 mainder of his volume to an extended discussion 

 of the skull and mandible of Piltdown man, or 

 Eoanthropus. This discussion, in fact, is so ex- 

 tended that it tends to become discursive, and to 

 obscure whatever conclusions it is intended to 

 convey. It is only evident that when the remains 

 of an extinct genus of Hominidee are to be inter- 

 preted, the experience of a vertebrate palaeonto- 

 logist is needed to supplement and modify the 

 ordinary methods of the human anatomist. Prof. 

 Keith has now so altered his first restoration of 

 the Piltdown cranium that the brain-capacity is 

 reduced to about 1400 c.c, while the mandible 

 has become essentially identical with that recon- 

 structed by Dr. Smith Woodward. In his 

 Figs. 176 and 185 he even shows the upstanding 

 large lower canine tooth being worn by the upper 

 canine, although on p. 459 he still maintains that 

 the wearing must have been due to the upper 

 lateral incisor. Mr. Charles Dawson's discovery 

 of Eoanthropus, however, has raised problems of 

 such difficulty that differences of opinion as to its 

 interpretation will continue until less imperfect 

 remains are forthcoming; and all students will 

 welcome Prof. Keith's detailed statement of the 

 questions involved. As to his more general con- 

 clusions in the final chapter of the book, geologists 

 and palaeontologists at least will hesitate to accept 

 them on account of the doubtful nature of much 

 of the evidence on which they are founded ; but 

 all will realise their indebtedness to Prof. Keith 

 for an inspiring new view of an old and perplexing 

 subject. A. S. W. 



THE WAR AND THE FUTURE. 



The War and After. Short Chapters on Sub- 

 jects of Serious Practical Import for the 

 Average Citizen in A.D. 1915 Onwards. By 

 Sir Oliver Lodge. Pp. xiii + 235. (London: 

 Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price is. net. 



THE little volume which Sir Oliver Lodge 

 has written is of interest from more than 

 one point of view. The author frankly confesses 

 that he has "no pretension to be an historian"; 

 and in the first section of his book he has bor- 

 rowed from many authors in order to present a 

 picture of "The Past." The result is, to some 

 extent, a patchwork; but the quotations are 

 skilfully dovetailed into the text, so that the 

 general effect is not so uncouth as might be 

 feared. The second portion of the book, "The 

 Present," deals with problems such as those 

 presented by aggressive and defensive wars, 

 savagery, pacifism, material prosperity, and self- 



