The Piltdown Skull

Abstract

IT had been my intention not to add anything further in print to my preliminary note (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. lxix., 1913, p. 145) on the cranial cast obtained by Dr. Smith Woodward from his reconstruction of the Piltdown skull until I was in a position to make a full and comprehensive statement as to the precise significance of the information afforded by the cranial fragments as to the kind of brain possessed by the earliest known human inhabitant of Britain. But, although my investigations are now sufficiently advanced to permit me to undertake the writing of my report, it will be some months before it can be published; and in the meantime it is most undesirable that the present widespread misunderstandings should be allowed to breed further trouble and confusion for those who are interested in the elucidation of Mr. Charles Dawson's momentous discoveries.