396 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 
skull, there is no room for doubt ; as regards that point, 
Dr Smith Woodward and I are in absolute agreement. 
The line and area of contact are shown in fig. 143. The 
difference of opinion relates to the amount broken off or 
missing from the temporal bone. A glance at fig. 143 
will show that two fragments are broken from the 
squama of the temporal, one from its upper border 
and another from its anterior border. So little is missing, 
in Dr Smith Woodward's opinion, that he brings the 
broken margin of the temporal almost in contact with 
the anterior inferior angle of the parietal bone ; whereas 
in my opinion an interval or gap must be left here, at 
least 8 or 10 mm. wide. By articulating the temporal 
in the manner mentioned, Dr Smith Woodward, as may 
be seen from fig. 143, leaves no room for the great wing 
of the sphenoid. We have already seen that the impress 
of the great wing on the lower border of the frontal and 
parietal bones gives us the most certain information that 
the great wing had an exceptionally wide development. 
In the next chapter we shall see, from certain markings 
on the brain cast, that by approximating the temporal 
too closely to the parietal one of the main convolutions 
of the temporal lobe has almost been obliterated, and the 
temporal lobe itself given a distorted form. 
The evidence which we obtain from a minute exami- 
nation of the Piltdown skull in profile confirms the 
conclusions we reached during a survey of its other 
aspects. It is a skull with dimensions above the average 
and with certain peculiar characters, but in its general 
conformation it does not differ materially from human 
skulls of the modern type. The characters which mark 
Neanderthal skulls are all absent. 
