go still further back and to venture beyond the historical horizon
into the dim past when prehistoric man roamed over Europe is a task
manifestly beyond the powers of the ordinary layman, and here we must,
perforce, trust ourselves to the guidance of those students whose
training and special learning entitle them to speak with authority.

The so-called Piltdown skull which was discovered in 1912 is accepted as
representing the most ancient of human remains yet found in England, its
age being estimated at somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 years. In
discussing the size and arrangement of the lobes and convolutions of the
brain which this cranium must have contained, Dr. Arthur Keith, who is
admittedly the highest authority on the subject to-day, makes the
following statement: "Unfortunately our knowledge of the brain, greatly
as it has increased of late years, has not yet reached the point at
which we can say after close examination of all the features of a brain
that its owner has reached this or that status. The statement which
Huxley made about the ancient human skull from the cave of Engis still
holds good of the brain: 'It might have belonged to a philosopher or
might have contained the thoughtless mind of a savage.' That is only
one side of our problem, there is another. Huxley's statement refers to
the average brain, which is equal to the needs of both the philosopher
and the savage. It does not in any way invalidate the truth that a small
brain with a simple pattern of convolutions is a less capable organ than
the large brain with a complex pattern. If then we find a fairly large
brain in the Piltdown man, with an arrangement and development of
convolutions not very unlike those of a modern man, we shall be
justified in drawing the conclusion that, so far as potential mental
ability is concerned, he has reached the modern standard. We must always
keep in mind that accomplishments and inventions which seem so simple to
us were new and unsolved problems to the pioneers who worked their way
up from a simian to a human estate."

In his concluding remarks upon this important find, Dr. Keith iterates
his opinion: "Although our knowledge of the human brain is
limited--there are large areas to which we can assign no definite
function--we may rest assured that a brain which was shaped in a mould
so similar to our own was one which responded to the outside world as
ours does. Piltdown man saw, heard, felt, thought and