130 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1414 



least one prominent authority thinks that this 

 man had quite as much gray matter as the 

 average modern man. 



Another striking thing to be seen at the back 

 of the skull is the evidence (in the size of the 

 ridges and the contrasting deep impressions), 

 of the tremendous and powerful mass of neck 

 muscles the creature must have had. This is 

 one of the points upon which is based the 

 opinion that the skull is the most primitive 

 yet found. 



But to get back to the face! Dr. Smith- 

 Woodward pointed out the fact that the suture 

 of the nasal with the frontal bone is in a 

 straight line rather than at a definite angle as 

 in the apes; he also called attention to the 

 small tubercle of bone in the mid-line of the 

 nasal fossa which he says is distinctly a human 

 trait. The zygomatic process is small. All of 

 the bone of the face below the orbit is rela- 

 tively undeveloped, but the length from the 

 floor of the orbit to the alveolar border of the 

 maxilla is phenomenal, as is also the length 

 from the iioor of the nasal cavity to the alve- 

 olar border of the maxilla. The palate is 

 beautifully arched, and the teeth form a per- 

 fect horseshoe at its border. The wisdom tooth 

 is reduced in size — another point in common 

 with modern man and never found before in a 

 fossil skull. 



Unfortunately, the mandible was not found; 

 the closest approach that could be found in the 

 British Museum to the type this man had, was 

 the Heidelberg jaw, but it is a bit too short 

 and too narrow, though the ramus is too broad. 



Another thing that has shocked the anthro- 

 pologists is the unmistakable evidence of dental 

 caries, and even of abscesses at the roots of the 

 teeth. Now I guess we will have to lift the 

 blame for caries off the shoulders of modern 

 civilization. Won't we? 



In contrast to the Neanderthal man who is 

 supposed to have walked in a crouching posi- 

 tion (because of the rather curved femur and 

 other bits of evidence), this man is believed 

 to have maintained the upright position, be- 

 cause the femur is relatively straight and when 

 fitted to the tibia (which was also found) pre- 

 sents a perfectly good, straight leg. 



But it would be altogether foolish for me to 



attempt any speculation on what I've seen! 

 Of course, the scientific world here is much 

 excited and many of its members are in danger 

 of letting their imagination run away with 

 them, but Dr. Eliot Smith at least is quoted as 

 leaning to the belief that further study will 

 reveal the fact that "the missing link" in the 

 ancestry of man is represented in this indi- 

 vidual — referring, of course to European man. 

 The Neanderthal man would then represent a 

 branch off of the main ancestral tree. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



A PRELIMINARY ATTEMPT TO TRANSMUTE 

 LITHIUM 



If an electron could be introduced into the 

 nucleus of a lithium atom, a nucleus would be 

 obtained which would possess the same result- 

 ant charge as a helium nucleus; if two elec- 

 trons were introduced the nucleus that resulted 

 would have the same charge as a hydrogen 

 nucleus. Both of these products are gases the 

 spectroscopic tests for which are of exceeding 

 delicacy. It consequently does not appear en- 

 tirely futile to subject lithium to bombardment 

 by a stream of electrons traveling with a high 

 velocity in the hope of causing some of them 

 to penetrate the lithium nucleus. Experiments 

 to this end were undertaken by the writer 

 three years ago in the laboratory of Inorganic 

 Chemistry of the Department of Chemistry, 

 Cornell University. At that time it was hoped 

 to be able to pursue the subject further with 

 more powerful apparatus; that possibility now 

 seems far distant so that it may not be amiss 

 to record briefly the results of the preliminary 

 experiments then made. 



The experiment consisted essentially of bom- 

 barding either metallic lithium or some salt 

 of lithium with as powerful as possible a 

 stream of electrons, absorbing all of the gases 

 present after the bombardment except hydro- 

 gen and helium, compressing this unabsorbed 

 residue into a capillary Pliicker tube and ex- 

 amining it spectroscopically. Such a pro- 

 cedui-e introduced many serious experimental 

 difficulties. In the first place if metallic 

 lithium was used, it is so readily volatile that 



