buffs believe that Oswald, Ruby, and 
the masterminds undertook their 
deeds for common reasons? 
When Washburn does reach my spe- 
cific arguments, he begins with my 
very last point, Teilhard’s “good luck” 
in finding the canine tooth, of which 
I stated: “It is the weakest point of 
all, hence its place at the bottom of 
my list.” 
Dodson proceeds in much the same 
way. For example, he attempts to de- 
molish what he takes to be one of 
my strong points in almost the very 
words I used in labeling it a weak 
point. To the argument that Teilhard 
might have supplied African elephant 
and Maltese hippo teeth to the “as- 
sociated fauna” at Piltdown, Dodson 
writes: “Perhaps, but it should be 
added that Sollas, Smith, and But- 
terfield also had excellent access to 
networks of collectors, both profes- 
sional and amateur.” I wrote, labeling 
the point as my next to weakest: “I 
regard this argument as suggestive, 
but not compelling. Dawson too was 
plugged into a network of amateur 
exchange.” Dodson then spends a 
paragraph attacking Leakey’s point 
that Teilhard taught high school 
chemistry in Egypt and may therefore 
have known how to stain the bones. 
But I regarded this argument as so 
by-the-by that I didn’t include it in 
my list at all. 
When the three commentators do 
consider my two major points, they 
either state them incorrectly, or so 
incompletely that my arguments are 
unfairly represented and converted to 
straw men. Let me then rehearse the 
two foundations of my case and com- 
ment upon the attempted rebuttals: 
1. Teilhard wrote a series of letters 
to Kenneth Oakley in 1953. In the 
first, he slipped (fatally, I believe) in 
stating that Dawson had shown him 
the site of the second Piltdown find 
and explained to him that he “had 
found the isolated molar and the small 
piece of skull in the heaps of rubble 
and pebbles raked at the surface of 
the field.” This is impossible because 
Dawson “found” the bones in 1915 
and Teilhard was sent to the front 
in December, 1914. If Teilhard saw 
the Piltdown 2 material, he probably 
helped Dawson to manufacture it be- 
fore he left. Oakley caught the in- 
consistency immediately and pressed 
Teilhard. Teilhard’s subsequent letters 
contain what I take to be a studied 
retreat surrounded with a set of other 
misstatements or half statements, all 
forming a pattern, carefully con- 
structed, in my opinion, to suggest 
innocence and avert suspicion. In my 
article, I placed primary emphasis 
upon the pattern of misstatement. I 
acknowledged that each individual 
point could be given an exonerating 
interpretation, but that my case re- 
sided in the common pattern of all 
misstatements — “each insignificant 
(or subject to other interpretations) 
by itself, but forming in their ensemble 
a subtle attempt to direct suspicion 
away from himself.” 
Washburn devotes but one short 
paragraph to this essence of my case, 
says nothing about my claim for pat- 
tern, and dismisses my central point 
about the Piltdown 2 specimens by 
stating: “To be shown a fake does 
not make a person a faker.” I agree, 
but I explicitly discussed this possi- 
bility and gave my argument against 
it. I framed Washburn’s claim as fol- 
lows: “Dawson showed the specimens 
to an innocent Teilhard in 1913, but 
withheld them from Smith Woodward 
The Soligor 80 - 200 mm 
Expand Your Horizons By Getting Close. 
You've got a terrific 35mm SLR camera, but not all of your shots 
are terrific. Some suffer from too much unwanted scenery, some 
from tiny people in big frames . . . shots that didn t work because 
your creative I .Q. was more than your lens could handle. 
That's right, lens. But, Soligor has a solution: the affordable, 
innovative Soligor 80-200mm One-Touch Zoom + Macro lens 
that lets you and your camera turn blah into beauty. 
Zoom in to crop out extraneous details. Bring your subjects 
up to 4 times closer than a standard lens can. Frame your shots 
exactly as you want them, and Soligor quality captures them 
faithfully Create exciting portraits, instead of just pictures of 
people: capture a still life or sports action as the kind of picture 
you bought your camera to get; experiment with amazing close- 
ups, thanks to macro ability. And it's all so easy with Soligor's 
single One-Touch control for zoom, focus and macro. 
If some of the zip has gone out of your picture taking, zip 
down to your Soligor dealer and try our 80-200mm 
on your Canon, Minolta, Pentax, Olympus, 
Nikon or other fine camera. Or, write 
for full information. 
SOLIGOR 
MAKES THE DIFFERENCE 
AIC Photo, Inc. Carle Place, N Y. 11514 
In Canada Kmgsway Film Equipment . Ltd Ontario 
27 
