PREHISTORIC MAN IN SUSSEX. 35 



speech in modern man is very significant, especially when we notice 

 that a marked boss (which, as Dr. Smith Woodward described, lends 

 a curiously distinctive form to the brain-cast and skull when viewed 

 from behind) is making its appearance in precisely the spot where 

 in modern man is developed the mechanism that permits the spon- 

 taneous elaboration of speech and the ability to name objects. 



The apparent paradox of the association of a simian jaw with a 

 human brain is not surprising to one familiar with recent research 

 upon the evolution of man. In the process of evolving the brain of 

 man from the ape the superficial area of the cerebral cortex had to 

 be tripled, and this expansion was not like the mere growth of a 

 muscle with exercise, but the gradual building up of the most complex 

 mechanism in existence. The growth of the brain preceded the 

 refinement of the features and the somatic characters in general. 



There are no grounds whatever for supposing that this simian jaw 

 and human brain-cast did not belong to one and the same individual, 

 who was probably a right-handed female. 



In the discussion that ensued, Prof. Boyd Dawkins said that he 

 agreed with the authors of the paper that the deposit containing the 

 human remains belonged to the Pleistocene age, and that the Pliocene 

 Mammalia in it — Mastodon arvernensis and the rest — had been 

 derived from a Pliocene stratum formerly existing in that area. The 

 latter were merely adventitious, and were no proof of the Pliocene 

 age of the stratum. The Palaeolithic implements were, in his belief, 

 of the same age as the human bones. There was no connection 

 between the faculty of speech and the capacity for making imple- 

 ments, as was urged by the last speaker. The evidence was clear 

 that this discovery revealed a missing link between man and the 

 higher apes, appearing at the stage of the evolution of the higher 

 Mammalia in which it may be looked for — in the Pleistocene age. 

 The modern type of man had no place in this age. He congratulated 

 the Society on having had the clear and lucid statement of the authors 

 supplemented by the valuable remarks of Prof. Elliot Smith, the 

 highest authority on the human brain. 



Mr. Clement Eeid observed that no detailed " drift survey " had 

 yet been made of this particular area, but perhaps the survey of the 

 Sussex coastal plain might throw light on the age of the deposit at 

 Piltdown. In the coastal plain the Pleistocene deposits fall into 

 three main groups. At the bottom is the erratic deposit of Selsey, 

 probably contemporaneous with the chalky boulder clay. Above 

 comes a series of interglacial deposits showing varying climates and 

 varying amounts of submergence, the submergence culminating in 

 the Goodwood raised beach, at 135 ft. above the sea, and passing 

 away in the lesser submergence shown by the raised beach of 

 Brighton. Above all these marine and fluviomarine deposits lies 

 the great sheet of Coombe Eock, which shows a recurrence of Arctic 

 conditions, perhaps dry cold. The uppermost Pleistocene deposit is 

 probably of Mousterian date. 



The speaker tried to trace these deposits of the coastal plain 

 continuously through the valleys which breach the South Downs 



