196 Scientific Intelligence. 



out and as a rule illustrated. The geologic distribution, with the 

 more important recent literature, is the closing topic of the dis- 

 cussion of each class of organisms. The final chapter in the work 

 consists of 60 pages treating of Faunal Succession, Geographic 

 Distribution and Ecology, Paleozoology and Biogenesis, and the 

 Vanishing of the Stocks. The book is recommended to teachers 

 and students of paleontology. c. s. 



4. Paleolithic man. — In sharp contrast to the dearth of fossil 

 human remains in the Americas are the discoveries which are 

 continually coming to light in the Old World. The latest of 

 these is the finding near Piltdown Common, Fletching, Sussex, 

 in gravel deposited by the river Ouse, of relics of humanity, con- 

 sisting of the greater part of a brain-case and one mandibular 

 ramus with two molar teeth. These bones were associated with 

 water-worn eoliths, and, still more to the point, with two frag- 

 ments of molar teeth of a Pliocene elephant and the water-worn 

 cusp of a mastodon molar ; in addition to the Pliocene relics 

 were also found the teeth of hippopotamus, beaver, horse, and 

 part of the antler of the red deer, with several unabraded early 

 Paleolithic (Chellean) implements. Of course the youngest asso- 

 ciated remains only serve to determine the date of the deposits 

 and therefore seem to refer them to Lower Pleistocene time. 



The skull measures 190 mm in length by 150 mm in greatest 

 width, and the bones are nearly twice the normal thickness, the 

 indicated brain capacity being about 1070 cc . Comparison with 

 the Neanderthal type shows for the Sussex skull a much steeper 

 forehead with only a feeble brow ridge, while the remarkably low 

 and broad rear of the skull indicates an ape-like neck. The jaw 

 is similar to that of a young chimpanzee but the comparatively 

 long and narrow molars are distinctly human. 



" At least one very low type of man with a high forehead was 

 therefore in existence in western Europe long before the low- 

 browed Neanderthal man became widely spread in this region. 

 Dr. Smith Woodward accordingly inclines to the theory that 

 the Neanderthal race was a degenerate offshoot of early man and 

 probably became extinct, while surviving modern man may have 

 arisen directly from the primitive source of which the Piltdown 

 skull provides the first discovered evidence." — Nature, Dec. 19, 

 1912, p. 438. R. S. L. 



5. Isostasy, a rejoinder to the article by Harmon Lewis ; by 

 John F. Hayford. Reprinted from the Journal of Geology, 

 vol. xx, pp. 562-578, 1912. — In the Journal of Geology for Octo- 

 ber-November, 1911, Mr. Harmon Lewis claimed that Hayford 

 had made a fundamental error in his computations on the depth 

 and completeness of isostatic compensation, — namely, that if the 

 assumption of complete compensation was wrong the following 

 calculations would bring out not a true depth but such a one as 

 would counteract the effect of the wrong assumption and thus 

 keep the sum of the residuals small. Lewis, however, did not 

 demonstrate his claim by actual application of his theory to Hay- 



