318 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



Final Remarks on Homo Pamp^us 

 By A. H. 



If any Homo jyamjyaeus ever existed, it is safe to say that his remains 

 have not as yet been produced. The case fails utterly thus far 

 from the standpoint of geology, as well as that of anthropology. If 

 the facts are carefully reviewed, it will be seen that geologically 

 no substantial evidence has been brought forward favoring any great 

 antiquity of the several lots of human bones assumed to represent 

 this human species. And as to archeology and somatology, they 

 both demonstrate that the specimens ascribed to Homo immyseus, 

 the "earliest human representative — if not even a predecessor of 

 man" — are fraught vdih. no such possibilities, but that the}'' point in 

 no uncertain manner to the common American Indian. In view of 

 all the facts, Homo pampseus must be regarded as merely a theory, 

 without, so far as shown, any substantiation. 



DIPROTHOMO PLATENSIS 

 History and Reports 



In 1896 the laborers employed by a firm of contractors in exca- 

 vating a dry dock, now known as No. 1, at Buenos Aires, discovered 

 a human skull. The specimen came to light at the commencement 

 of the work on the rudder-pit, an additional small cavity in the bot- 

 tom of the nearly finished dry-dock excavation. 



An account of the circumstances of the discovery was published in 

 July, 1909, by Professor Ameghino.^ According to this: ''The frag- 

 ment of skull in question was found during the last stages of the work 

 of deepening the port of Buenos Aires, in the excavations for the dry 

 docks, in the north basin in dock Xo. 1, or that of the west. It was 

 found in the deepest part of the excavation, even deeper than the 

 floor of the dry dock itself, in a hollow made in the base of this for the 

 manipulations of the rudder. There were some more osseous debris, 

 but Mr. Junor,^ having arrived somewhat late at the place of the dis- 

 covery, was not able to save more than the specimen under considera- 

 tion [p. 107]. . . . 



''At the point where excavation for the dry-dock has been made the 

 bed of the stream is 1.86 m. below the surface of the water at the ordi- 

 nary low tide and the base of the dry dock is 10.50 m. below the bed 

 of the stream; in other words, the latter is 12.36 m. below the level 

 of the water. The additional hollow made in the bottom of the dry 

 dock for the accommodation of the rudder is 50 cm. deep, and it 



1 Ameghino, F., Le Diprothomo pHtensis, un precurseur de I'homme du pliocene inferieur de Buenos 

 Aires; in Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, xix (ser. iii, t. xii), 1903, pp. 107-209. 



2 A senior member of the Corps of Superior Employees of the works in the Port of Buenos Aires, and 

 supervisor of the work. 



