362 
THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 
must have been. The temporal bone sends its petrous 
portion (fig. 127) inwards on the base of the skull. The 
apex of this petrous process reaches within 10 or 15 mm. 
of the middle line of the skull. In the majority of 
human and anthropoid skulls the distance of the apex 
from the mid-line is about 1 2 mm. ; the allowance made 
in the reconstructions shown in fig. 127 is 13 mm. The 
application of the temporal fragment at once shows if the 
former steps have been rightly made. If the parietal 
75 50 O 75 50 O 
100 
LEFT 
TElMRORAL 
^5 50 "75 50 
TEST SKULL PILTDOWN 
. 127. — Showing the manner in which the left temporal bone is placed in 
position, and the left half of the skull built up (i) in the test skull, (2) in the 
Piltdown skull. 
halves have been made too wide or too narrow, the apex 
of the petrous bone will be too far from, or too near to, 
the middle line along the base of the skull. 
The identity of the problems presented by the test 
and Piltdown skulls is apparent in fig. 127. We note 
that in size and shape the fragments are not unlike. 
Certain minor points of difference are also to be 
recognised : (i) the parietal bones of the fossil skull 
are nearly twice as thick as those of the test skull — 
the first being 8 to 1 1 mm. thick, the latter from 4 to 6 
