Dr. Dubois' “Missing Link”

Abstract

THE opening scientific meeting of the session of the Roya Dublin Society, on November 20, was of especial interest owing to the presence of Dr. Eugene Dubois, who exhibited the famous remains which he discovered in Java. The chair was taken by Prof. W. J. Solias, F. R. S. Dr. Dubois read a paper “On Pithecanthropus erectus: a transitional form between Man and the Apes,” which will very shortly be published by the Society, and which was illustrated by a number of lantern slides made in Dublin for this lecture. He said that when he was invited by Prof. Cunningham to read a paper before the Royal Dublin Society, he did not for a moment hesitate to comply, as he was anxious to get as much criticism as possible. By order of th Dutch Indian Government he conducted, from 1890 to 1895, explorations of a fossil vertebrate fauna, of which some remains had been discovered many years ago by Junghuhn and others. These vertebrate remains, which were found abundantly at Trinil on the southern slope of the low Kendeng Hills, were obtained from beds of cemented volcanic tuff, consisting of clay, sand and consolidated lapilli, which were rearranged by fluviatile action. The whole formation attains a maximum thickness of over 350 metres. In these strata the Bengawan River has cut its channel 12 to 15 metres in depth. These beds lie unconformably upon beds of marine marl, sand and limestone, which have recently been determined by Prof. Martin to be of Pliocene age. In August 1891, Dr. Dubois came upon a very rich layer of fossil bones, in which the remains in question were found; this occurred in the lapilli deposit, or fine gravel, about five inches above a bed of coarse gravel, which rests on a black clay. The layer of bones lies a little below the dry-season level of the river. The river-bank was excavated with such care that the position of each specimen was accurately known. In September a wisdom tooth was discovered, and a month later the skull-cap was found about one metre distant, and at precisely the same level. The work was interrupted by the rainy season, but was renewed in May 1892; the left femur was found in August, at distance of about 15 metres from the calvaria, and in October a second molar, at a distance of 3 metres from where the skull-cap was found, and in a direction towards the place where the femur had been dug out. Among the associated animals may be mentioned large numbers of Stegodon, specimens of hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon), hyæna, several species of deer, Bubulus, a gigantic pangolin three times as large as the existing Javan form, &c. The four remains were all in the same state of fossilisation as the animal remains, the weight of the femur being nearly three times that of a recent femur. Doubt had been expressed whether the four remains belonged to the same individual; Dr. Dubois himself had no doubt on this point, as he had often found bones from the self-same skeleton, and even fragments of a single bone, at similar distances apart; never had he found a complete skeleton. He had good reasons for believing that the animals perished in volcanic catastrophes, and their corpses were brought down a large Pliocene river, so that before the bones were finally deposited and buried they must have been separated by the rotting of the flesh; and there are evidences of crocodiles having preyed upon the carcases.