CHAPTER XXI 
THE DIFFICULTIES OF RECONSTRUCTION 
In this chapter I propose to lead the reader into the 
rather intricate problem of skull reconstruction. So far 
as concerns the Piltdown fragments, I became involved 
in the puzzle of fitting them rightly together in the 
most casual manner. Indeed, from a reference to 
the published proceedings of the famous meeting on 
December i8th, at which the discovery was announced, 
it is clear that I was then of opinion that any problem 
of reconstruction had been fully solved by Dr Smith 
Woodward. When the privilege of taking part in the 
discussion was extended to me, I gave it as my opinion 
that " the reconstruction of the skull had been executed 
with great skill" — only making the reservation that "in 
the reconstruction of the chin region of the mandible 
and the form of the incisor, canine, and premolar teeth, 
the characters of the chimpanzee had been too closely 
followed." 
That opinion was based on a cursory examination of 
Dr Smith Woodward's reconstruction of the skull at the 
commencement of the meeting. In May of the following 
year (19 13), anatomists were supplied with exact replicas 
in plaster of the various fragments, and also a copy of 
the original reconstruction — all of them the work of that 
excellent modeller, Mr F. O. Barlow. One day, soon 
after the arrival of the models at the museum of the 
Royal College of Surgeons, I sat down and depicted on 
the skull of an Australian native — one with a brain 
capacity of 1450 c.c. — the exact areas of the Piltdown 
m 22 
