37° 



Notes and Comments. 



THE PILTDOWN MAN. 



Speaking of the Piltdown remains, the author states : 

 ' Certain palaeontologists still persist in claiming that the 

 jaw is a chimpanzee's and did not belong to the human 

 skull with which it was found. But this claim ignores, not 

 merely the improbability of such a chance association on 

 the same spot of the remains of a hitherto unknown man- 

 like ape and equally unknown ape-like man, one of which 

 left his skull without the jaw and the other the jaw without 

 the skull, but also the large series of anatomical peculiarities 

 of the jaw and teeth which, as Mr. Py craft has clearly demon- 

 strated, prove the jaw to be, not a chimpanzee's, but that of a 

 primitive human being — no doubt a part of the same individual 

 whose skull was deposited alongside it. The outstanding 

 interest of the Piltdown skull is the confirmation it affords 

 of the view that in the evolution of man the brain led the way. 

 It is the veriest truism that man has emerged from the simian 

 state in virtue of enrichment of the structure of his mind. 

 It is singular that so much biological speculation has neglected 

 to give adequate recognition to this cardinal fact. The brain 

 attained what may be termed the human rank at a time when 

 the jaws and face, and no doubt the body also, still retained 

 much of the uncouthness of man's simian ancestors. In other 

 words, man at first so far as his general appearance and " build " 

 are concerned, was merely an ape with an overgrown brain. 

 The importance of the Piltdown skull lies in the fact that it 

 affords tangible confirmation of these inferences.' 



MANCHESTER GEOLOGICAL AND MINING SOCIETY. 



In the Transactions of the Manchester Geological and 

 Mining Society, Vol. XXXV., Part 4, Dr. George Hickling has 

 a well illustrated ' Contribution towards the Micro-Petrology 

 of Coal.' In this he concludes : — ' There would seem to be 

 little doubt that in due course a satisfactory classification, 

 which will link up the past history and the present qualities 

 of different coals, will be made possible. As yet, however, we 

 are far from possessing the necessary mass of observations. 

 It is perhaps justifiable at this stage to classify coals into the 

 three following groups : — (1) Humic Coals. — In this type 

 " lignitoid " constitutents predominate, and are, as a rule, of 

 medium depth of colour. Partings of " mother-of-coal " are 

 fairly frequent. The oval or flocculent bodies are not un- 

 common. Spore-coats are relatively scarce, and " algae " are 

 absent. (2) Canneloid, including true cannels and spore- 

 coals. The two dominant constitutents are pale-coloured 

 spore-coals and dark or even opaque finely-comminuted 

 matrix. " Lignitoid " lenticles of appreciable size are sub- 

 ordinate in quantity. " Mother-of-coal " is less frequent ; 



Naturalist, 



