288 



DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



up there humanly worked flints of very primitive work- 

 manship. I have also followed with Dr. Smith Woodward 

 the development and confirmation of his interpretation of 

 the jaw. 



I now desire to insist upon the legitimate conclusion 

 to be drawn from this wonderful specimen. That con- 

 clusion is that the creature, indicated by it, is not (or was 



FIG. 28. The Piltdown Jaw (Eoanthropus) with dotted lines showing 

 the parts as now "re-constructed" or "imagined" by Dr. Smith 

 Woodward, together with the late-found or recovered canine in its 

 natural position. 



not when it was alive) an eccentric cousin either of the 

 Simiid or of the Hominid stock, but represents a real 

 " missing link," an animal intermediate in great and 

 obvious features between the two stocks, and either to 

 be described as an ape which had become man -like or as 

 a man who still retained characteristic ape-like features 

 a truly connecting or linking form. Nothing like it, 

 nothing occupying such a position, has hitherto been 

 discovered. It brings the focus of interest in the 



