OcToBER 9, 1913| 
NATURE 
161 
upwards than in Woodward’s reconstruction, and 
hat the whole front of the jaw, and consequently 
the front teeth, were somewhat smaller and more 
human than he believes.”” There is no doubt this 
is the case; a close study of the faithful replicas 
of the jaw which are now freely in circulation 
will show that there is neither indication of, nor 
accommodation for, the large canine tooth postu- 
lated by Dr. Smith Woodward. It is true the 
conformation of the chin is purely simian. It is 
a feature never before observed in a human skull, 
but a simian chin does not necessarily indicate 
_ a large canine tooth. 
_ The discovery at Piltdown evidently puzzled 
the author of “1’Uomo Attuale ”’—Prof. Giuffrida- 
Ruggeri, of Naples, one of the most expert 
anthropologists in Europe. He is naturally puzzled 
‘by the statement of the discoverers that they 
‘regard Eoanthropus as a contemporary of the 
Heidelberg: man, and that flints of the Chellean 
type were found with the remains—flints of that 
‘type belonging to a much later date than that 
‘of the Heidelberg jaw. He adds that it was im- 
‘possible for him to make any further statement 
regarding the nature of Eoanthropus until figures, 
or, better still, actual models of the remains were 
at his disposal. By this time such models are 
_ probably at the Neapolitan professor’s disposal, 
and he will have noted, as students of anatomy are 
certain to observe, that owing to the manner in 
which the bones of the skull-case have been put 
together, the brain-size of Eoanthropus has been 
greatly under-estimated. The size of brain is that 
of modern man—somewhere about, or a little 
above, 1500 cubic centimetres. The importance of 
the discovery of Eoanthropus will be thus appa. 
rent. At an early part of the Pleistocene period, 
_ perhaps much earlier, there existed human beings 
with a brain of the modern size, but a chin which 
was purely simian in conformation. 
(2) In discovering the evidence on which the 
long-past history has to be based three classes 
of men are involved—the geologist, the archzo- 
logist (or lithologist), and the anatomist. It is 
unlikely that any one man could attain’ such a 
knowledge as to become an expert in all three 
lines of investigation. The geologist must be our 
time-keeper and time-marker, especially as regards 
the Pleistocene—the geologist who has_ paid 
special attention to the evidence relating to the 
phases of glaciation. For this reason a work on 
the origin and antiquity of man, by Dr. 
Frederick Wright, who has been a life-long 
student of the glacial phenomena of North 
America, is of especial value. There is nothing 
concerning the origin of man in Dr. Wright’s 
book, but much which bears on the length of 
NO. 2293, VOL. 92] 
] 
the Pleistocene period and the relation of man 
to that period. Penck, from his studies of 
the glacial deposits in Europe, estimates. that 
the Pleistocene was at least half a million years 
in duration, perhaps a million and a half. Dr. 
Frederick Wright’s investigations in America 
have led him to infer that 80,000 years is an ample 
estimate of the duration of the Ice age from its 
inception to its close. He admits the existence 
of pre-Glacial man. “Large areas,” he writes, 
“in Europe and North America which are now 
principal centres of civilisation were buried under 
glacial ice thousands of feet thick, while the 
civilisation of Babylonia was in its heydey (5000 
B.c.). . . . Both in its inception and in its close 
the Glacial epoch was a catastrophe of the most 
impressive order. No reasoning from present 
‘conditions can apply to the Glacial epoch without 
great reservation.” 
It will thus be seen that Dr. Frederick Wright 
has returned to the manner of thinking which was 
prevalent before the days of Lyell. He is an advo- 
cate of “Paroxysms of Nature.” By a paroxysm 
of human evolution—one is inclined to substitute 
the word “miracle ”—he thinks the early civilisa- 
tion of Babylon and of Egypt may have hurriedly 
arisen and primitive mankind become separated 
into the well-marked varieties which are seen in our 
present-day world. It must also be noted that the 
duration assigned to the last phase of glaciation 
by Dr. Wright is in complete agreement with the 
computations given by the late General Drayson. 
In one matter especially anthropologists are much 
beholden to Dr. Wright. He has no hesitation in 
declaring that the human skeletons found under 
the loess at Lancing on the Missouri and at 
Omaha, Nebraska, lay under undisturbed glacial 
deposits, and the remains were those of men who 
lived in America in the Glacial period. The im- 
portance of the statement lies in the fact that 
these men were of the modern type—in one case 
exactly of the Red Indian type. 
(3) Prof. Giuffrida Ruggeri’s book deals with 
another aspect of the problem of man’s origin. 
Its inception dates from his visit to London two 
years ago, when he attended the Universal Races 
Congress. He was surprised to hear the specula- 
tions of Prof. Klaatsch regarding the independent 
origin of human races—brought forward by those 
who took part in the discussions of the congress— 
as if they were facts accepted by all anthropo- 
logists. It will be remembered that Prof. Klaatsch 
saw fanciful resemblances between certain races of 
mankind and certain anthropoids, and supposed 
such races and anthropoids had sprung together 
from acommonstock. In the process of dismember- 
' ing Prof. Klaatsch’s theory, the Neapolitan pro- 
