Reviews — Man and the Anthropoid Apes. 131 



in considering some undoubted facts as to contact-metamorpliism 

 in general. 



So far as concerns the particular case in point, and the conclusions 

 we may draw from it, the question is not in any way affected by the 

 manner of transfer of the soda, nor even by the possible denial of 

 any such ti-ansfer at all. 



[To be concluded in our next Numbei'.) 



le, E ^V I IE -VT" s. 



I. — Eeported Discovery of an Animal intermediate between 

 Man and the Anthropoid Apes. 



Pithecanthropus erectus. Eine menschen^hnliche Uebkr- 

 GANGSFORM Aus Java. By EuG. DuBois. 4to. pp. 1-39, with 

 two Plates. (Batavia, 1894.) 



EEPORTS of the discovery of the remains of animals inter- 

 mediate between Man and the Anthropoid AjDes are always 

 to be received with scepticism, since the resemblances between the 

 skeletons of the higher Primates are so considerable that abnormali- 

 ties, due to disease and other causes, are liable to be regai'ded as 

 evidence of the existence of intermediate forms. There can be little 

 doubt that this is what has happened in the present instance, 

 portions of an abnormal human skeleton having been made the 

 types of a new genus and species, Pithecanthropus erectus, for the 

 reception of which a new family, the Pithecanthropidee, has been 

 established. The name Pithecanthropus was originally employed by 

 Ilaeckel to denote a hypothetical animal forming a connecting link 

 between man and the higher apes, and it is in this light that the 

 creature, to which the name is now applied, is regarded, where they 

 were found associated with extinct mammalia. 



The remains upon which such important conclusions have been 

 based consist of the upper portion of the cranium, a tooth (m. 3), 

 and a left femur, all of which were found near the village of Trinil, 

 on the Bengawan Eiver, Java, and are considered to have belonged 

 to a single individual. The rock from which these bones wei'e 

 obtained is a volcanic ash, a deposit which in a country like Java, 

 subject to frequent volcanic eruptions, must often enclose the 

 remains of men and animals that have been overwhelmed. A 

 somewhat similar case of the discovery of human remains in 

 "volcanic rock is recorded by Scrope in his work on the volcanoes 

 of Central France, two skeletons having been dug out of a bed 

 of " tuif " near Le Puy, in the Auvergne district. 



The skull, of which the upper and hinder portions are preserved, is 

 dolichocephalic, and measures 18'5 cm. in length. All the sutures 

 are closed, and there are no bony crests for the insertion of muscles. 

 The photographs show that the whole surface is covered with pits 

 and rugosities which might be the result of weathering and 2^ost- 

 mortem injuries, but have much the appearance of a diseased 



