265 



ORDINARY MEETING.* 



T. Chaplin, Esq., M.D., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the 

 following Elections were announced : — 



Members : — H.R.H. Prince Momolu Massaqui, Africa ; Lt. -Colonel 

 Malcolm Arbuthnot Alves, E.E., Middlesex. 



Associate :— G. Swinburne, Esq., C.E., Melbourne. 



How. Cor. Member : — Professor Armand Sabatier, M.D., France. 



The following " Note " was then read by the author : — 



NOTE ON TEE SUPPOSED DISCOVERY OF 

 REMAfNS BELONGING TO AN ANIMAL 

 INTERMEDIATE BETWEEN MAN AND THE 

 APE. By Professor E. Hull, LL.D., F.R.S. 



1"1H0SE naturalists wlio consider man as a direct descen- 

 dant from some form of ape have long been looking 

 out for remains of the " missing link," or rather several 

 missing links which should connect the skeletons of the 

 families simiiJcc and hom{nida\ CJp to this time none such 

 have been discovered. Recently, however, certain remains 

 have been disinterred from the Pleistocene gravels, or 

 volcanic ash, in the valley of the Bengawan river in Java 

 which have been described by Dr. Eugene Dubois, and are 

 referred by him to a new family to which he gives the name of 

 Pithecanthrojyus, as constituting a connecting link between 

 man and the apes.f These consist of a cranium, a right 

 upper Avisdom tooth, and a left femur. There is some doubt, 

 however, whether these three parts of the skeleton all come 

 from the same individual. 



The question regarding their relations to man and the ape 

 is examined by Professor D. J. Cunningham, F.R.S. , of 

 Dublin, one of our highest authorities on questions of com- 

 parative anatomy, in a paper read before the Royal DubHu 

 Society ;:|: and it may be interesting to members of the 

 Victoria Institute if 1 give in an abbreviated form the con- 

 clusions at which he has arrived. 



* 10th of 30th Session. 



t '■'Pithecanthropus erect us ; Eine menschoenliche Ubergangsform aus 

 Java" (Batavia, 1894). 

 I iXaticre, 28 Feb. 1895. 



