Abstract
AT a special meeting of the Royal Anthropological Institute held on September 29, when Sir Arthur Keith, ex-president, was in the chair, Dr. Aleš Hrdlička, of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, gave an account of his recent journey to India, Java, Australia, and South Africa for the purpose of visiting the sites upon which discoveries relating to early man had been made, and exhibited bones and other relics from the cave at Broken Hill in which the skull of Rhodesian Man was discovered. These remains are to be deposited at the British Museum (Natural History) at South Kensington. Dr. Hrdlicka said that on his arrival in India he was surprised to find that, in addition to the new species of fossil apes from the Siwalik Hills already known, two or three more new species had been discovered and were in the Calcutta Museum, but had never been described. Their discovery had been made by Dr. Pilgrim, superintendent of the Geological Survey, and there was a risk that these important investigations in the Siwalik Hills, where fossil remains abounded, might not be continued. In Java he had visited the site on which Pithecanthropus erectus had been discovered. Here again there was a great field for discovery; but priceless material which might bear upon the history of man was being lost for ever as it washed out of the deposits and was thrown away or destroyed by the natives. From Australia, perhaps, a great deal was not to be expected. The Talgai Skull was so nearly akin to those primitive specimens, the Australian skulls, that it may not be very ancient; but definite conclusions are not yet possible.
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Dr. Hrdlika on Early Man. Nature 116, 557 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116557a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116557a0