in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.). 131 



a manual intended solely for experts, although experts, whether 

 anatomists, geologists, or anthropologists, might learn a good deal 

 from it. In fact, no more useful introduction to the study of fossil 

 man could be put into the hands of students. 



The "Conclusion" of the Guide is such an admirably concise and 

 sane summary of the present state of our knowledge and so 

 characteristic a sample of the quality of the whole of the work as to 

 be worth quoting in full : — 



" The general conclusion is that man, having a skeleton essentially 

 identical with the existing one, has lived in western Europe for 

 a long period during great changes of climate, much alteration in 

 geographical contour, and the dying-out of numerous wild 

 quadrupeds. He was here long before the British Isles were 

 separated by sea from the mainland of Europe. His immediate 

 predecessor was a form of man (the Neanderthal or Mousterian) 

 which more nearly approached the apes in the retreating forehead, 

 the prominence of the bony brow, and the large size of the face. 

 The skeleton of his trunk also exhibited a combination of more ape- 

 like features than are known in any single human skeleton of later 

 date. Still earlier Heidelberg man, though with typically human 

 teeth, had a much more retreating bony chin, suggestive of close 

 relationship with the apes. Finally, Piltdown man, which is at 

 least as old as the Heidelberg race, and probably older, had both 

 lower jaw and front teeth as nearly as compatible with their 

 working on a human skull of normal width. His skull, however, 

 though with a very large face, and in some respects the most ape-like 

 known, appears at first sight to be contrary to expectation in the 

 steepness of its forehead and the absence of the modern ape's 

 characteristic brow-ridges. But it must be remembered that, in 

 accordance with a well-known law, the skull in the adult ancestral 

 apes of Miocene times (still to be discovered) probably resembled that 

 of the very young existing ape, not that of a full-grown individual. 

 Just as the bony brow-ridges are acquired during the life of each 

 individual existing ape, so the race of apes began without them, and 

 only gradually acquired them as an adult character through 

 successive generations. The Piltdown skull, therefore, probably 

 resembles the skull of the truly ancestral apes much more closely 

 than does the later Neanderthal skull, in which the bony brow-ridges 

 may be a mark of peculiar degeneration. The Pithecanthropus from 

 Java may be another degenerate." 



The admirable conciseness and adequacy of this judgment appeal 

 most strongly to those who have critically studied the conflicting 

 mass of literature on the points at issue. 



The publication of this Guide at the present time is peculiarly 

 opportune, not only because it puts within th'e reach of everyone the 

 information to enable him to discriminate between the true and the 

 false in the recent literature relating to primitive man, much of 

 which is distinguished by a reckless disregard of the caution and the 

 precision of statement usually observed in scientific work, but also 

 because it will enable everyone interested in such matters to 

 appreciate the meaning of new discoveries which the near future will 



