January 17, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



91 



and complicated problem to the point of ac- 

 tual solution; and I must be content with 

 bringing forward my personal contribution of 

 matters of fact to this important inquiry, of 

 a kind to require that they be taken into 

 account in forming an adequate theory of 

 this disease. In the meantime, whether the 

 SimuUum theory be finally justified or not, 

 it should be especially welcome to us, as I 

 intimated in the beginning, as giving us 

 motive and opportunity greatly to increase our 

 knowledge of these interesting insects; and it 

 is particularly for this reason that I have 

 ventured to bring this imperfect discussion 

 of a problem yet unsolved before this congress 

 of the entomologists of the world. 



Stephen A. Forbes 

 University or Illinois 



EOANTSBOPUS DAWSONI 

 A MEMORABLE and crowded meeting of the 

 Geological Society was held in Burlington 

 House, London, on December 18, to hear a 

 paper read " On the Discovery of a Paleolithic 

 Human Skull and Mandible in a Flint-bearing 

 Gravel overlying the Wealden (Hastings 

 Beds) at Piltdown, Fletching (Sussex)," by 

 Charles Dawson, F.S.A., F.G.S., and Arthur 

 Smith Woodward, LL.D., F.K.S., Sec.G.S. 



Four years ago Mr. Dawson noticed that a 

 certain road had been recently mended by 

 peculiar flints, which he traced to a shallow 

 pit. A little later he found that the laborers 

 had dug out a "thing like a coco-nut," the 

 fragments of which they threw on a rubbish 

 heap. Mr. Dawson found there a part of a 

 human skull which he showed to Dr. Smith 

 Woodward; they realized the importance of 

 the discovery, but kept it secret until they had 

 time to exhaust the pit. This took a long 

 time, as it is under water for six months in 

 the year. Half of a mandible was found in 

 the undisturbed gravel close to the spot where 

 the skull occurred. 



The gravel at Piltdown rests on a plateau 

 80 feet above the river Ouse and at a distance 

 of less than a mile to the north of the existing 

 stream. Thus denudation to the extent of 80 

 feet has taken place since the gravel was 



formed. In the gravel were found two broken 

 pieces of the molar of a Pliocene type of ele- 

 phant, a much rolled cusp of a molar of 

 Mastodon, besides teeth of Hippopotamus, 

 Castor and Equus, and a fragment of an 

 antler of Cervus elaphas; all of which, like 

 the human skull, were well mineralized with 

 oxide of iron. Many water-worn iron-stained 

 flints were obtained which closely resemble 

 the artifacts from the North Downs near 

 Ightham, to which the term " eoliths " is gen- 

 erally applied. A few implements of the char- 

 acteristic Chellean type also occurred. The 

 gravel is (archeologically) early paleolithic 

 and (geologically) early pleistocene of about 

 the same age as the Norfolk Forest Bed. 

 Professor Sollas places the Chellean industry 

 in the second genial episode of the Ice Age, 

 but the artifacts of Ightham type, and the 

 remains of elephant and mastodon were doubt- 

 less derived from an Upper Pliocene deposit. 

 Although the cranium is very fragmentary, 

 the pieces recovered so abut on one another 

 that an accurate contour of the brain case can 

 be obtained, and a cast could be made of the 

 cavity, which reveals the broad features of the 

 brain. The cranium is typically human, and 

 has a capacity of at least 1,070 c.c. It meas- 

 ures about 190 mm. in length from the glabella 

 to the inion, and 150 mm. in width at the 

 widest part of the parietal region. The bones 

 are remarkably thick, the average thickness 

 being 10 mm. The forehead is prominent and 

 not receding as in the Neanderthal cranium, 

 and the brow ridge is feeble; the occipital 

 bone shows that the tentorium over the cere- 

 bellum is on the level of the external occipital 

 protuberance, as in modern man. The tem- 

 poral muscles extended higher up on the skull 

 than in any recent or fossil man. When 

 viewed from behind it is seen that the cranium 

 is surprisingly broad and low. The mastoid 

 processes are small. There do not appear to 

 be any characters in the cranium which can 

 not be matched severally in various existing 

 human skulls. No facial bones were discov- 

 ered. The right half of the mandibular 

 ramus is nearly complete to the symphysis 

 and lacks only the articular condyle and the 



