AN EXPERIMENT IN RECONSTRUCTION 359 
some of his fellow-anatomists should select a skull, cut 
fragments from it corresponding to those found at 
Piltdovvn, and that I should attempt to reconstruct the 
entire skull from these fragments. I gladly accepted 
the proposal, and resolved, however the result should 
turn out, to make the experiment the subject of an 
address I had promised to the fellows of the Royal 
Anthropological Institute.^ 
On January i6th, 19 14, a fortnight before my lecture 
was due, the four pieces of a skull shown in fig. 124 
Fig. 124. — Fragments of test skull. A, Left parietal fragment ; B, right 
parietal fragment; C, left temporal ; D, occipital fragment. 
came to me from Dr Douglas Derry of University 
College, London. They were representatives of the 
Piltdown fragments, and the task of reconstruction offered 
the same difficulties. Only on one piece — the occipital 
fragment — could any certain sign of the middle line of 
the skull be detected. 
In fig. 125 is given the first step in the work of re- 
construction. A drawing of the fragment of the right 
parietal bone is laid on a drawing of the left bone, so that 
corresponding points are superimposed. It is clear that 
' See/ou/yi. Roy. Anthrop. Inst., vol. xlix., July 1914. 
