100 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
The next step in the argument is to show that some fossil 
skulls possess, to a more or less degree, the features of the 
Australian skull — the degree of divergence from the normal 
European type being in direct proportion to their antiquity. 
As hearing on this important generalisation, let me, in the first 
Figs. 1 and 2. - Front and side views of the skull of a native 
Australian. (After Owen.) 
place, refer to the famous calvaria of Pithecanthropus erectus 
(figs. 4 and 5), discovered (1891-2) by Dr Dubois, in the 
detritus of a Pliocene river in Java, which shows a remarkably 
low and retreating forehead. In the absence of the facial bones 
we can only surmise that the individual which originally owned 
this skull presented a highly prognathic appearance, approaching 
even to that of Hylobates , to which Dr Dubois compares it. 
(See Pith, erectus , Plate I., 1894.) 
