A Lost Neanderthal Tooth

Abstract

AMONG the recent accessions to the British Museum (Natural History), South Kensington, some of which are referred to later in these columns, is a molar tooth of Neanderthal man. This tooth has been identified as a 'milk tooth', which originally formed part of a series of palæontological specimens collected in Gibraltar by Capt. F. Brome, governor of the military prison, and forwarded by him to England in 1865, The tooth was mentioned by Mr. George Busk in 1868, after which date it disappeared and had been lost to science for nearly seventy years. Its recognition is due to Dr. A. Tindell Hopwood of the British Museum, who furnishes the following particulars of the identification. An unworn human tooth, fastened to a small square of blue paper and contained in a cardboard pill-box without lid, was received some months ago in the Department of Geology with various specimens from the Royal Dental Hospital. This, with some others, was passed to Dr. Hopwood for examination. His interest was aroused by a small printed label gummed to the paper and identical with labels on specimens from Gibraltar already in the Museum. This suggested that the tooth might be the one reputed to have been found by Brome, and examination disclosed the correct date (24.2.65) written in ink in the lower left-hand corner and on the back of the blue paper “1m under six years”—evidently the ground for constant reference to a milk tooth, and leaving little doubt as to the origin of the specimen. Capt. Brome's investigations in the Genista cave, from which the specimens came, lasted over a period of years in the 'sixties of the last century. The cave, which was named “Genista” in his honour, was discovered when the prison, of which he was governor, was being enlarged, and in the course of digging a new tank, fissures were observed in the limestone.