44 
Notes and Comments. 
beyond all question the true median plane. It is 21 mm. from 
the point of the large fragment (in the frontal region). Mr. F. 0 . 
Barlow called his attention to the fact that the contour of the 
frontal bone when viewed in norma facialis confirms this iden- 
tification of the median plane, because the summit of the curve 
is directly above the endocranial metopic crest. Professor 
J. T. Wilson pointed out to him that the direction of the orbital 
plate of the frontal bone is such, that it assumes its proper 
position only when the fragment is so placed that the above- 
mentioned crest is in the median plane. The backward 
prolongation of the frontal median crest cuts the parietal 
fragment precisely along the line determined by Dr. Smith 
Woodward on other grounds. It indicates that the posterior 
part of the sagittal suture is obliterated — a view that is con- 
firmed by the presence of an irregular wavy furrow upon the 
bone, precisely similar to that found in other skulls where this 
suture had recently closed. This may occur in modern man 
at any time between about 30 and 40 years of age. The 
evidence afforded by the parasagittal ridge on the left parietal ; 
by the meningeal grooves ; and by the positions occupied by 
the fragments of the lambdoid suture upon the occipital and 
parietal fragments, corroborates the correctness of this identi- 
fication of the median plane. 
PROF. A. KEITH. 
Professor A. Keith congratulated the authors on the 
progress made during the last twelve months. He was glad 
to note that the particular stratum in which the remains of 
Eoanthropns had been found was being distinguished from 
the' more superficial stratum in which flints of the Chellean 
type had been found. He ventured to say that, if no human 
remains had been found in the deeper or Eoanthropic stratum, 
no one would have hesitated in regarding it as of Pliocene age. 
He was glad to note that the hinder end of the skull of Ecan - 
thropus had been opened out to a considerable degree, but in his 
opinion the occipital and temporal bones were still placed 
wrongly. When these defects were removed, and the two 
sides of the skull made approximately symmetrical, it would 
be found that the brain-capacity was about 1500 c.c. The 
brain-cast of the skull, as originally reconstructed, was just 
under 1200 c.c. ; it was difficult to see how widening out of 
the skull would reduce the capacity to 1100 c.c. Two other 
difficulties he had encountered were (1) the presence of a pointed 
projecting canine in the jaw and an articular eminence at the 
glenoid fossa of the skull ; and (2) a much-worn canine tooth 
in a jaw in which the third molar tooth — according to the pub- 
lished X-ray photograph of the Piltdown mandible — was not 
completely erupted. He agreed that all three parts — skulk 
Naturalist ,. 
