18 WILLIAM DALE, ESQ., F.S.A., F.G.S., ON PREHISTORIC MAN: 



contained flint implements of the Chellean period, and fossilized 

 remains of the mastodon, hippopotamus, and other Pleistocene 

 animals, all mineralized in the same way as the broken pieces of 

 the cranimn and portion of the lower jaw of a human being, 

 which were recovered from the same deposit. All authorities 

 agree, these are the oldest human remains which have yet come 

 to light. In our scientific publications are technical and full 

 descriptions of these Piltdown remains, and from the fragments 

 obtained, Dr. Smith Woodward has made a complete restoration 

 of the skull and jaws. Summarized briefly, the result is to give 

 us a jaw remarkably like that of the ape, with a brain of lower 

 cerebral capacity than that of other Paleolithic men, and with 

 certain characteristics of a simian nature. There are, however, 

 not the projecting brow ridges of the Neanderthal man, and the 

 general shape of the brain-case resembles that of the young 

 chimpanzee. Two of the molars are in place, and by the shape 

 of what remains in the frontal portion of the ramus, it was evi- 

 dent that space was left for large canine teeth of ape-like character. 

 So the restoration included large interlocking canines. This 

 restoration was, however, called in question by Dr. Keith, of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, who made another model with a human 

 jaw and a brain capacity fully that of modern individuals. This 

 criticism led Dr. Woodward to make a fresh restoration of the 

 brain-case, which he has submitted to Dr. Elliot Smith, the result 

 being to give a brain capacity within the range of the smallest 

 human brains of the present day. The restoration of the jaw was 

 confirmed by the fortunate discovery in August 1913, after a 

 re-examination of the gravel, of the actual canine tooth which 

 was missing. It is abnormally large, and by the way it is worn, 

 must have been interlocking. Piltdown man, therefore, was a 

 creature with a jaw resembling that of an ape, yet with the brain 

 of a man, although bearing some simian affinities even in this 

 respect. But on the question of the brain, the last word has not 

 yet been said. 



The conclusion of the whole is, that man's existence has not 

 yet been proved beyond the period known as the Pleistocene ; 

 that the earhest known man had certain skeletal characteristics, 

 which seem to connect him with the apes ; that no fossil primate 

 is known earlier than Eocene times, and between that and the 

 Pleistocene period no remains have been found of any creature 

 to which the famihar expression " missing link " may be applied ; 

 and lastly that in all our discoveries, the brain, on which so much 



