428 



NA TURE 



[February 28, 1895 



DR. DUBOIS' SO-CALLED MISSING LINK? 



A T » meeting of the Roval Dublin Society, held on 

 ■^ Wedneslay, Januar)' 23, Dr. D.J. Cunningham, F. R. S., 

 Professor of Anatomy in the Univeisiiy of Diulin, .ind Hon. 

 Secretary of the Society, read a paper upon the characters 

 presented by the fossil remains recently de-cribed by Dr. 

 Eugene Dubois. (See Nature, January 24, p. 291.) The 

 following is an abstract of ihis communication. 



The fossil remains are three in number, viz. : the upper part 

 of a cranium, a right-upper wisdom looih, and a left femur. 

 These are believed to belong to the I'leistocene period, 

 and, according to Dubois, present characters which justify him 

 in placing the animal to which they belonged in a new family 

 which s'aiids midway between man and the apes. The speci- 

 mens were found in Java, on the left bank of the Bengawan 

 River, i'l the neighbourhood of Trinil. Each was exhumed 

 at a different time, but all at the same level, viz. 1 m. below 

 the dry-season level of the river, and from 12 to 15 m. 

 below the level of the plain through which the stream has cut 

 its way. 



The characters assigned to the new family proposed by 

 Dubois are the following : " Cranium absolutely and rela- 

 tively to boiy-size, much more roomy than in simiida;, but les- 

 roomy thanin hominida?; cranial capacity about two-thirds of the 

 average capacity of the human cranium. The inclinalion of the 

 cervical surface of the occiput distinctly stronger ihan in simiidae. 

 Dentition after the type of the simiiHa:. Femur similar in its 

 dimensions to that of man, and designed for the upright walk 

 and attitude." 



The leading peculiarities of the cranium of the so-called 

 Pithecanthropus are : (1) the low depressed character of the 

 cranial arch ; (2) the extreme narrowness of the frontal region ; 



Fic. i.-ri 

 of a 

 * Ik 

 external • 

 front. 



■' :.- cr.-inial .-irch of: <i, ordinary Irish siciill ; ^, skull 



idiot ; c, the fossil cranium described by Dubois; 



I. The base-line i< one which passes throuRh the 



il'iMl fTotulKnince behind, and the centre of the glabcll.i in 



and (3) the striking development of the superciliary ridges. 

 These are all to sodc extent simian fcitures : and when out- 

 linei of the aniero-postcrior cranial arch of an ordinary Irish 

 ■kull, of the skull of a microcephalic idiot (the brain of which 

 presented many atavistic characters), of the fossil cranium, and 

 of the skull of a young female gorilla, are reduced to the same 

 size and superimposed over each other, it is seen lliat ilie idiot 

 cranium and the fossil cranium procnt almost identically the 

 same curvature ; further, these two outlines occupy a place 

 almost exactly midway bctwcccn the Irish cranial outline and 

 that of the gorilla. (Fig. I.) 



Another combination, equally interesting and equally in- 

 stnic ive, is one in which the outlines of the anteio-postcrior 

 cranial a'Ch of the fossil form, of tiic Neanderthal skull, of the 

 Spy cranium No. 2, and of the ordinary Irish skull, arc super- 

 imposed over each other. {Fig 2.) In this the Neanderthal 

 arch is seen to preserit almost exactly 'he same ch.iractcrs as those 

 of the fossil form, anrl, lurihcr, lolienrarcrloit than to the outline 

 of the arcli of the modern Iri-h skull. The .Spy cranium N>,. 2 

 lakes its place between the normal skull anil the Neanderthal 

 cranium, so that by a sctiei of easy and nearly equal gradations 



> " Pithecanthropus erecluf, eint mcnschaenlictie UherganKsrorm aus 

 Java." By Kiigenc Dutwis, (Batavia, 1894.) 



NO. 1322, VOL. 5[] 



we are led from the fossil form up through the Neanderthal and 

 Spv forms to the modem cranial arch. 



The heavy, strongly marked superciliary ridges constitute 

 another Ne.inderthal.id (eaiure of the fossil loriu, but the trans- 

 verse frontal diameter is very much less than that of the 

 Neanderthal or Spy crania. In this rtspect the fossil cranium 

 closely approaches the microcephalic skull referred to above, 

 and also the skull of the gorilla. 



When the measurements of the fossil cranium are compared 

 with those of the Neanderthal and Spy skulls, other striking 

 resemblances become manifest. 



The fossil cranium is thus only 15 m.m. shorter and lom.m. 

 narrower than the Spy cranium No. I. In every anthropo- 



Fl"".. 2. — Outlines of the aniero-postcrior cr.inial arch of ; .r, ordin.iry Irish 

 skull; A, Spy cranium No. 2; i. Neanderthal cranium; */, tlic fossil 

 cranium described by Dubois ; c, llic skull of a KoiilKi. H:isc--line thr 

 same as in Fij; i. 



metric laboratory intelligent individuals are occ.isionally 

 measured who possess an antero-posterior cranial iliameter 

 very much less than that of the fossil cranium. In these cases, 

 however, the head is usually brachyccphalic, and presents 

 a high and full cranial arch. In the above taiile the 

 diameters of one of the smallest heads measured in the Dublin 

 University Laboratory arc given.' 



Dubois calculates, from a comparison with ape crania, that 

 the fossil specimen had originally a capacity of at least 1000. 

 The average capacity of the European skull may be said to 

 range from 1400 to 1500 (VVelcker), and the Neanderthal 

 cranium has been computed to have had a capacity of 1200. 

 In this respect, therefore, the Ncandeillial skull takes an inter- 

 mediate place between that of the fossil form and of the 

 European. I'urther, it should be borne in niimi that a capacity 

 of 1000 is usually regarded (is indeed Uuliois points out) as 

 being the physiological mininuim for the hiiinan cranium. 



From these considerations the fossil cranium described by 

 Dubois is unquestionaldy to be regaided as human. It is the 



■ A female cranium from the Island of InishbofTin on the west coasl of 

 Ireland prcsdtts .in anicro. posterior dianicler of 178 111 in., and :i transverse 

 diamcler of i^q m.m. In both of these diaincteis, therefore, it is smaller 

 than ihr Java fossil cranium. It dilTcrs from the jailer, however, in possess- 

 ing a very lody aniero-postcrior cranial an h. 



