PREFACE vii 
materially from the one presented in a diagrammatic form 
in the frontispiece of this book. The author's solution 
is only one of many ; time will show which is right. 
The mystery of Edwin Drood we can never solve ; 
only the novelist knew what fate had in store, and he 
carried the secret to his grave. The mystery of man's 
antiquity stands in a different position. Every year 
brings new evidence to light — places facts at our disposal 
which take us a step nearer to a true solution. In recent 
years discoveries of fossil man have crowded in upon us, 
yielding such an abundance of new evidence that we have 
had to reconsider and recast our estimates of the antiquity 
of man. No discovery of recent date has had such a 
wide-reaching effect as that made by Mr Charles Dawson 
at Piltdown, Sussex. Hence the reader will find that a 
very considerable part of this book is devoted to the 
significance of that specimen of humanity which Dr 
Smith Woodward named Eoanthropus dawsoni. 
In accumulating the material and facts on which this 
book is based the author has become deeply indebted to 
many men. The help of some he has acknowledged in 
the text, but there are many whose names do not appear 
there. The omission does not mean that he is not 
grateful to them for their help. He must, however, 
acknowledge here the assistance he has received from 
time to time from the officers of the British Museum, 
from Mr J. Reid Moir, Mr A. S. Kennard, Mr W. H. 
Cook, the Rev. Edwin H. Mullins, and Mr Courtney 
Lyne. For assistance in preparing illustrations for this 
work he is indebted to his friend, Dr Stanley Beale, and 
particularly to Mr William Finerty. 
ARTHUR KEITH. 
July 1914. 
