May 29, iBbu.j 



SCIENCE. 



791 



pus might then be determined once for all. 

 Dr. Dubois, moreover, kindly invited Prof. 

 Virchow, Sir "William Flower and myself 

 to come an honr before the meeting and 

 personally examine the remains he was to 

 discuss, and this invitation was most gladly- 

 accepted. ,, ' 



The first sight of the fossils was a sur- 

 prise, as they were evidently much older 

 than appeared from the descriptions. All 

 were dark in color, thoroughly petrified, 

 and the matrix was solid rock, difiScult to 

 remove. The skull-cap of Pithecanthropus 

 was filled with the hard matrix, firmly ce- 

 mented to it. The roughness of the supe- 

 rior surface, especially in the frontal re- 

 gion, was apparently due to corrosion after 

 entombment, and not to disease, as had • 

 been suggested by some anatomists. The 

 femur was free from matrix, but vei'y 

 heavy in consequence of the infiltration of 

 mineral matter. The exostosis on its upper 

 portion was a conspicuous feature, but of 

 course is pathological. This feature is of 

 little consequence, as very similar out- 

 growths occur on fossil bones of even Eocene 

 age. The two teeth showed no characters 

 that indicated their interment under cir- 

 cumstances different from that of the skull 

 or femur. All the physical characters im- 

 pressed me strongly with the idea that 

 these various remains were of Tertiary age, 

 and not Post-Tertiary, as has been sup- 

 posed. The description of the locality and 

 the account of the series of strata there ex- 

 posed, as given by Dr. Dubois in his com- 

 munication, confirmed this opinion, and a 

 later examination of accompanying verte- 

 brate fossils placed the Pliocene age of all 

 beyond reasonable doubt. 



The facts relating to the discovery itself, 

 and the position in which the remains were 

 found, as stated by Dubois in his paper, to- 

 gether with some additional details given to 

 me personally, convinced me that, in all 

 probability, the various remains attributed 



to Pithecanthropus pertained to one indi- 

 vidual. Under the circumstances, no pale- 

 ontologist who has had experience in col- 

 lecting vertebrate fossils would hesitate to 

 place them together. 



,, The three specimens originally described, 

 the tooth, skull and femur, were found at 

 different times in the same horizon, all im- 

 bedded in the same volcanic tufa, in the 

 bank of the river Bengawan, near Trinil, in 

 central Java. The tooth was found first, 

 in September, 1891, in the left bank of the 

 river, about a meter below the water level 

 during the dry season, and twelve or fifteen 

 meters below fhe plain in which the river 

 had cut its bed. A month later, the skull 

 was discovered, only a meter distant from 

 the place where the tooth lay. In August, 

 1892, the femur also was found, about fif- 

 teen meters distant from the locality where 

 the other specimens were imbedded. Later, 

 in October of the same year, a second molar 

 was obtained at a distance of not more than 

 three meters, from where the skull-cap was 

 found, and in the direction of the place 

 where the femur was dug out. 



The fossils thus secured were all carefully 

 investigated by Dubois, who regards them 

 as representing a distinct species and genus, 

 and also a new family, which he has named 

 the Pithecanthrojndce, and distinguished 

 mainly by the following characters : 



Brain cavity absolutely larger, and, in 

 proportion to the size of the body, much 

 more capacious than in the Simiidae, yet 

 less so than in the Hominidw. Capacity of 

 the skull about two- thirds the average of 

 that of man. Inclination of the nuchal 

 surface of the occiput considerably greater 

 than in the Simiidce. Dentition, although 

 retrogressive, still of the simian type. 

 Femur equal in its dimensions to that of 

 man, and like that adapted for walking in 

 an upright position. 



Of this skull, the upper portion alone is 

 preserved, the line of fracture extending 



