JULT 31, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



159 



and right parietal bones, " but the result does 

 not alter essentially any of the conclusions 

 already reached." 



With this opinion Professor Elliot Smith 

 is in complete accord. From an examination 

 of the original fragments, he was able to 

 determine the location of the median line of 

 the skuU. The persistence of slight traces of 

 the sagittal suture in the regions of the bregma 

 and lambda made this possible. The true 

 median plane in this particular case, however, 

 passes a little to the left of the union of the 

 coronal with the sagittal suture owing to a 

 slight deflection of the latter. Since this de- 

 flection is never more than a few millimeters 

 (except where large bregmatic wormian bones 

 are present and they are not present in this 

 case), the bregma and lambda are good guides 

 in locating the median plane. In line with the 

 median plane as thus determined, the endo- 

 cranial aspect of the frontal bone presents a 

 well-defined longitudinal ridge, corresponding 

 to the " place where the two halves of the 

 frontal bone originally came together at the 

 metopic suture." The cranial capacity then of 

 the Piltdown skull is evidently not very much 

 greater than the original estimate of 1,076 c.c. 

 In addition to exhaustive laboratory studies 

 on the parts above mentioned, a painstaking 

 and systematic search was made at the Pilt- 

 down site. The mandibular ramus had been 

 found in situ. All the gravel in situ within a 

 radius of five meters of this spot was " either 

 washed with a sieve or strewn on specially 

 prepared ground for the rain to wash it; after 

 which the layer thus spread was mapped out 

 in squares, and minutely examined section by 

 section." In this spread Father Teilhard de 

 Chardin, assisting at the work for three days, 

 found the right canine tooth in August, 1913. 

 The two human nasal bones and the turbinated 

 bone were not recovered from this spread, but 

 from disturbed gravel within less than a meter 

 of the spot where the mandible had been dis- 

 covered. 



The nasal bones are said to " resemble those 

 of existing Melanesian and African races, 

 rather than those of the Eurasian type." In 

 thickness they correspond to the bones of the 



skull previously found. The canine tooth not 

 only corresponds in size to the mandible, but 

 belongs to the same half (right) as that re- 

 covered. It likewise agrees with the two 

 molar teeth in the degree of wear due to mas- 

 tication. The extreme apex is missing, but 

 whether by wear or by accidental fracture is 

 not determinable. The enamel on the inner 

 face of the crovm has been completely removed 

 by wear against a single opposing tooth. The 

 worn surface " extends to the basal edge of the 

 crown, as indicated by the clear ending of the 

 cement along its lower margin." 



This canine tooth is larger than any human 

 canine hitherto found, and interlocked with 

 the opposing upper canine. It rose above the 

 level of the other teeth and was separated from 

 the lower premolar by a diastema. On the 

 other hand, there is no facet due to wear 

 against the outer upper incisor, such as often 

 occurs in the apes. 



If a comparative anatomist were fitting out 

 Eoanthropus with a set of canines he could 

 not ask for anything more suitable than the 

 tooth in question. It conforms to a law in 

 mammalian paleontology, " that the perma- 

 nent teeth of an ancestral race agree more 

 closely in pattern with the railk-teeth than 

 with the permanent teeth of its modified de- 

 scendants." The canine of Eoanthropus, as 

 might have been expected, resembles the milk 

 canines of Homo sapiens, on the one hand, and 

 Simia salyrus, on the other, than it does the 

 permanent canines of either. It is pointed 

 out that even in recent man if the base of the 

 crown of the canine were raised in the gum 

 to the same level as that of the adjacent teeth, 

 its apes would frequently rise well above the 

 rest of the dental series. 



The various elements that make up the 

 gravel bed at Piltdown are better known to-day 

 than when the first report was published; 

 additional fossil animal remains have also been 

 recovered. Four well-defitned layers have been 

 determined. At the top is a deposit of surface 

 soil 35 em. thick, containing pottery and flint 

 implements of various ages. The second bed 

 consists of undisturbed gravel varying from 

 a few centimeters to a meter in thickness. 



