PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS— A FORM FROM THE 

 ANCESTRAL STOCK OF MANKIND. 1 



By Eugene Dubois. 



The fossil remains upon which I have founded this new species con- 

 sist of a calvarium, or skullcap, two upper molars, and a femur. With 

 the exception of one tooth, the second upper molar on the left side, they 

 have already been described by me in a paper published in Batavia in 

 1894. 2 It now seems desirable to give some special details. 



It is well known that a not inconsiderable number of anatomists and 

 zoologists hold diametrically opposite views regarding the significance 

 of these remains. For instance, as to the skull, a few have believed 

 that it is human, although of much more ape-like appearance than 

 hitherto known, while others have considered it the skull of an ape far 

 more human in character than any previously discovered. It is remark- 

 able that only a few have believed in a third possibility, intermediate 

 between these two views, viz, that we have before us here a transition 

 form between apes and men that is neither man nor ape. Recently 

 this intermediate view has made quite significant progress, and a con- 

 siderable number have accepted it. As to the anthropists and pithe- 

 cists, as the upholders of the extreme views may be called, the former 

 find their fossil Java man more ape like than they at first did, while 

 the latter have placed their most anthropoid of apes still a few steps 

 higher on the ladder of ascent toward man. These views now tend to 

 coincide still more, because iu the meantime it has been possible to test 

 them by an exhibition of the objects themselves, and I have been able 

 to give further particulars, especially as to the circumstances under 

 which the remains were found. 



For the proper interpretation of these osseous remains the circum- 

 stances under which they were found is quite as important a factor as 

 the anatomical considerations. I will therefore first give some partic- 

 ulars regarding their situation when discovered. 



Near the remains that are the subject of this paper I have collected in 



1 Part of a paper read before the Berlin Anthropological Society on the 14th of 

 December, 1896. Translated from the Anatomischer Anzeiger, Vol. XII, pp. 1-22. 



2 Pithecanthropus erectus, eine menscheniihnliche tlbergangsform aus Java. Bata- 

 via Landesdruckerei, 1894. 



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