1 88 THE EARLIEST MEN 



Dubois put it down at eight hundred and fifty- 

 five cubic centimeters, but Keith thinks that is an 

 underestimate, though he does not commit him- 

 self to any figure, no doubt wisely, for the estima- 

 tion can be little more than a guess. It may just be 

 mentioned that the Australian savages' skull- 

 capacity runs down to about one thousand cubic 

 centimeters. 



The Piltdown Skull. This skull, in an imperfect 

 condition and with half a lower jaw, was found by 

 Mr. Dawson in a flint-bearing gravel overlying 

 the Wealden (Hastings beds) at Piltdown in Sussex, 

 and was described by him and by Dr. Smith 

 Woodward.* It is at this moment an object of 

 active controversy. Its describers think that skull 

 and mandible " cannot safely be described as being 

 of earlier date than the first half of the Pleistocene 

 epoch." There is some doubt as to whether the 

 fragment of skull and the mandible belong to the 

 same individual. Chellean implements were found 

 with the remains, and are claimed as being of the 

 same date. As to the skull itself, or rather the 

 fragments which remain, it is stated that the cubic 

 capacity is above that of the modern Australian 

 savage, but in connection with the Piltdown 

 example, it is a curious fact that the reconstruction 

 of the skull carried out by the authors of the papers 

 does not at all please Professor Keith, another 

 high authority. This authority says that Dr. 

 Smith Woodward's reconstruction is one of a man 

 who " could neither breathe nor eat, which was 



* Quarterly Journal, Geological Society, London, March, 1913, 

 and April, 1914. 



