318 
NATURE 
[NovEMEER 13, 1913. 
and rancid fats. Soaps, even when combined with 
antiseptic substances, possess little or no anti- 
septic power, even in more than the quantities in 
which they are ordinarily used. Dr. Addis has 
investigated the causation of hemophilia, the 
‘bleeding disease.” He finds that the essential 
factor is a qualitative defect in the prothrombin, 
whereby blood coagulation in the hamophilic in- 
dividual is delayed; on the other hand, quantita- 
tively all the elements necessary for blood-coagu- 
lation are present in the normal individual. 
Distemper in dogs and other animals has been 
investigated by Dr. M’Gowan, who has regularly 
isolated in this condition a bacterium with distinct 
characters. Dr. John Fraser has investigated the 
prevalence of the human and bovine types of the 
tubercle bacillus in bone and joint tuberculosis 
occurring in children. He finds that the bovine 
type of bacillus is present in more than half the 
cases. 
The Edinburgh College of Physicians is to be 
congratulated on the results of their liberal endow- 
ment of research; and in the preface due acknow- 
ledgment is made of additional financial assistance 
received from the Carnegie Trust. RO els 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 
this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 
taken of anonymous communications.] 
The Piltdown Skull and Brain Cast. 
In my previous letters (NATURE, October 2, p. 131, 
and October 30, p. 267) I refrained from entering into 
a detailed consideration of the reconstruction of the 
Piltdown skull, because I am preparing for presenta- 
tion to one of the learned societies a full statement 
of all the facts and considerations bearing upon the 
points at issue. But I am glad to accede to Prof. 
Keith’s invitation (NaturE, November 6, p. 292) to 
publish a drawing of the brain cast for comparison 
with his (Nature, October 16, p. 198, Fig. 2). 
It is a pleasure to express my hearty agreement 
with his appreciation of the excellence of Mr. Bar- 
low’s workmanship and of Dr. Smith Woodward’s 
courtesy in permitting anatomists freely to handle 
and examine the precious fragments. Mr. Barlow’s 
casts of the fossil bones are certainly the best 
examples of such modelling that I have ever seen; 
and I strongly resent the interpretation (op. cit., 
Pp, 292) put upon my remarks in reference to them. 
But even such realistically perfect copies cannot dis- 
play structural details such as the texture of bone, 
the precise location of certain faintly marked sutures, 
and the nature of sutural edges of the bones; and all 
of these points are of crucial importance in this 
discussion, 
On the actual fragments, for example, one can see 
quite plainly a part of the right half of the coronal 
suture (not visible on the cast), meeting the 
more obvious left half at an angle which must, 
of course, be upon (or very close to) the median plane. 
Now this point lies upon the forward extension of the 
plane mm (see fig.), which was determined from other 
evidence (see Nature, October 30, p. 267). 
NO. 2298, VOL. 92] 
Then again the texture of the bone covering th 
area on the brain cast near the line mm just aboy 
the point e (see fig.) is characteristic of that whi 
comes into contact with the median longitudinal sin 
This is further confirmation of the accuracy of th 
determination of the line mm. There are three o' 
features of the bone in the neighbourhood of the 1 
corresponding to mm, namely the supralambd 
flattening, the arrangements and medial relations 
the meningeal grooves, and the median groove 
the frontal region, which confirm this identification 
of the line mm as a close approximation to the real 
median plane. 
On these grounds the orientation of the left parietal 
(P) to the median plane (mm) is settled; but we 
have still to determine its position in relation to the 
occipital upon that plane. * 
In spite of the extreme asymmetry of the posterior 
poles of the cerebral hemispheres (O and O°), the two 
halves of the cerebellum (Ce.l. and Ce.r.) and the 
lateral sinuses (L. and R.), the orientation of the 
occipital fragment upon the median plane is fixed, 
as a Keith has explained (NaturE, October 16, © 
. 198). : ; 
The broken piece (b) fits accurately upon the main 
fragment (O'), and as it bears upon its external face 
and lateral edge traces of the right part of the 
lambdoid suture, it is important as giving some indi- 
cation of the breadth of the occipital bone at this 
level. [To avoid the addition of another diagram, I 
have inserted alongside the letter b a stippled design 
to suggest, in a purely diagrammatic manner, 
extent and complexity of a small fragment of the 
lambdoid suture preserved upon the external face of 
the bone that covered the area b.] ¢ 
Now that the occipital and left parietal fragments 
have been orientated upon the line mm, the problem 
remains of determining their relative heights the one 
to the other upon that line. e 
The left lateral sinus left its imprint upon the 
occipital (L.) and also upon the lower corner of the 
left parietal (at d). Although the sinus is sometimes 
distinctly arched upward as it passes from the occi- 
pital to the parietal, the points d and the uppe 
margin of L are as a rule on approximately the same 
horizontal plane, both in man and the anthropoid apes 
Thus we cannot ‘go far wrong if we bring the occi- 
pital and the left parietal into the positions shown 
in the diagram. 
But Prof. Keith will object (NaTurE, October 16, 
