Marcu 29, 1912] 
late Professor Bowditch at Harvard, this idea 
has finally developed in the hands of the lat- 
ter’s successor into the work before us. It has 
the particular merit of making available 
everywhere the results of twenty years of ex- 
perience in the teaching of physiology at the 
Harvard Medical School. 
YANDELL HENDERSON 
YALE MEDICAL SCHOOL, 
NEw HavEN, Conn., 
February 27, 1912 
PLEISTOCENE MAN FROM IPSWICH 
(ENGLAND) 
So much has been said in the public press 
concerning a human skeleton of reputed great 
antiquity recently found near Ipswich, Eng- 
land, that a request from the editor of Sct- 
ENCE alone sufficed to cause me to alter my. 
original decision not to write anything on the 
subject until after I had seen the skeleton as 
well as the locality from which it came. On 
receipt of communications from Mr. J. Reid 
Moir, who found the remains and from Pro- 
fessor Keith, who is making a detailed study 
of them, it is possible for me to comply with 
the request without further delay. 
The main facts are these. On October 6, 
1911, Mr. J. Reid Moir, of Ipswich, was noti- 
fied by Messrs, Bolton and Laughlin, local 
brickmakers, that one of their workmen, 
while removing surface clay to reach the 
underlying glacial gravel, had encountered 
human bones. Mr. Moir proceeded at once to 
the pit and found that a portion of a human 
skull still attached to a complete encephalic 
east of boulder clay had been recovered. Rec- 
ognizing the importance of the find, Mr. Moir 
removed the remainder of the skeleton in the 
presence of three gentlemen, Messrs, Wool- 
nough (curator of the local museum), Canton, 
and Snell. In order to preserve the extremely 
fragile bones, the containing beds were re- 
moved with them. After this had been done, 
three geologists, Dr. J. E. Marr, F.R.S., Mr. 
W. Whitaker, F.R.S., and Mr. George Slater, 
F.G.S., were called to Ipswich to examine the 
section. , 
A sheet of hard chalky boulder clay of vary- 
SCIENCE 
505 
ing thickness is spread over East Anglia, over- 
lying stratified mid-glacial sands. Between 
these deposits and at a depth of only four and 
one half feet the skeleton was found. Was it 
interstratified? This question will probably 
never be answered to the satisfaction of all. 
According to Mr. Moir, a “most careful ex- 
amination of the section before the disinter- 
ment took place showed clearly that no signs 
of any previous digging were visible, the clay 
above the skeleton appearing to be in every 
way the same as that which extended for some 
distance on each side of it.” The presence of 
a calcareous band immediately underneath 
the skeleton was noted as well as the fact that 
it “extended more or less continuously on 
either side of the spot where the remains were 
found”; and it is pointed out by Mr. Moir 
that if a grave had been dug through the 
boulder clay, rain water percolating through 
the loose grave filling would have dissolved 
away the calcareous deposit. One of the best 
bits of evidence is that the skeleton was partly 
embedded in glacial sand and partly in 
boulder clay; “this sand showed clearly lines 
of stratification and was conformable with 
that underlying it.” 
On the other hand Mr. George Slater, one 
of the three geologists called to view the place, 
but not until after the bones had been re- 
moved to London, looks upon the site as 
highly unsatisfactory. Considering the loss 
by infiltration he would not expect to find dis- 
tinct signs of a grave after a lapse of some 
thousands of years. The position on the side 
of a valley points to the possibility of hill 
wash or re-deposited boulder clay. 
It was a wise precaution from every point 
of view to remove the matrix with the skele- 
ton. This was done in blocks which were for- 
warded to Professor Arthur Keith at the 
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, 
London. Here each block was impregnated 
with a solution of gelatine, after which the 
bones were exposed by piecemeal removal of 
the overlying boulder clay, but were still left 
in situ on the underlying glacial sands. Ac- 
cording to Professor Keith the whole skeleton 
was represented, its various parts being in 
