X. A comparative study of the endocranial cast of Sinanthropus

We have made this attempt to describe and interpret the endocranial cast of Sinanthropus in deference to the wishes of Professor Davidson Black.* When he submitted to the Royal Society his preliminary report (Black, 1933, a ), he explained to us that he did not regard it as a disadvantage that his paper was incomplete, because it opened the way for those who had opportunities for comparing the cast with those of other human fossils and actual brains of primitive men and apes, to undertake the necessary work of comparison and interpretation, and we willingly undertake this duty. Each of us has independently studied the actual fossil skull in the Union Medical College at Peiping and examined the beautiful cast made by Professor Davidson Black from the actual fossils, and we should like to express our gratitude to him for these opportunities and many other kindnesses which he showed us. In studying the endocranial cast obtained from the Piltdown skull one of us (G.E.S.), years ago, was impressed by the extraordinary resemblance presented by the form of the brain in this extinct member of the human family to that of the primitive brain of a modern human being, a Sudanese negress (Elliot Smith, 1927, figs. 40 and 41). The other (J.L.S.) was impressed by the remarkable likeness to the endocranial cast of Sinanthropus of the brain of the Bushwoman, described in 1865 by Professor John Marshall. The recognition of these facts adds particular importance to the consideration that both the authors of this communication have served an apprenticeship to the task by examining large series of primitive brains, aboriginal Australians (J.L.S.) and Sudanese negroes (G.E.S.), and have devoted some attention to the comparison of the brains of the anthropoid apes and primitive men. In attempting to interpret the significance of the endocranial cast of Sinanthropus special attention must obviously be paid to comparison with the casts of Pithecanthropus and Eoanthropus . The comparison with the brains of the larger apes is also important, throwing light as it does upon the characters one ought to expect to find in extremely primitive human brains. In attempting to convey some real conception of the nature of the form of the brain we have resorted to the use of series of contours, figs. 10-14, so that the reader at a glance can obtain a graphic expression of the distinctive peculiarities of form. * The misfortune of his premature death deprives us of the pleasure of presenting this memoir to him.

III. The croonian lecture. - On the discovery, morphology, and environment of Sinanthropus pekinensis

During the interval which has elapsed since the subject-matter of this paper was presented in lecture form, a memoir has been completed by the Cenozoic Research Laboratory of the Geological Survey of China, on the subject of “ Fossil Man in China ” and ancillary problems of Cenozoic research in that area (Black and others, 1933). By reason of this fortunate circumstance it has become possible to incorporate in the present communication a resume of the chief geological, palaeontological, and archaeological conclusions to which we have been led as a result of the completion to its present stage of that wider study. It is a pleasure to acknowledge here my indebtedness to my friends and colleagues of the staff of the Cenozoic Research Laboratory, without whose cordial co-operation and assistance the present paper could not have been written. To my friends Dr. V. K. Ting, Honorary Director of Cenozoic Research in China, and Dr. Wong Wen Hao, Director of the Geological Survey of China, I wish also to express again my most hearty thanks for their unfailing help and support throughout the whole course of my work in China. I wish further to thank Dr. Wong for permission to use here, in modified form, a number of illustrations which have appeared earlier in publications either of the Geological Survey, or of the Geological Society, of China. The general physiography and location of the Choukoutien area is admirably illustrated in Professor G. B. Barbour’s two block diagrams, figs. 1 and 2, and in the three field sketches by the same artist of the immediate Choukoutien terrain, here reproduced in fig. 3. I am much indebted to Professor Barbour for his kindness in preparing and permitting me to use these instructive and artistic illustrations.

XIII. The extinct of rhinoceroses of Baluchistan

The occurrence of extinct forms of rhinoceroses in the Lower Miocene deposits of Dera Bugti in Baluchistan has been known for a long time. As far back as 1881 Lydekker described species from rather fragmentary material and later, in 1912, Pilgrim added very considerably to our knowledge of the fauna from the results of his own expedition to the locality. The present account deals with specimens collected by myself during two expeditions to Dera Bugti in the years 1910 and 1911. The material available for description is unfortunately for the most part very fragmentary. In only one instance was a moderately complete skull found in association with its lower jaws. Specimens were obtained at various points round the Zen Koh range and were usually picked up as fragments washed out into the nullahs and therefore are of uncertain zone. At Kumbhi there were traces of a bone bed, but with its specimens much broken up. At Churlando, on the opposite side of the range, a better bone bed occurs, though even here there was very little association of the remains.

II. Studies in reptilian colour response. I. - The bionomics and physiology of the pigmentary activity of the chameleon

The literature of reptilian colour change extends over twenty three centuries, and yet our knowledge of the physiological processes which govern it, and of the environmental factors which bring it about, is to-day far less complete than for the other two groups of vertebrates which possess pigmentary effectors. The cause of this, it would seem, resides in the fact that the colour changing reptiles inhabit pre-eminently the tropical and subtropical regions of the globe, and are not readily available for physiological investigation in the main centres of scientific progress. The history of this subject is peculiar. From Aristotle to the end of the nineteenth century the literature deals almost exclusively with the chameleon, an animal which for centuries has excited the curiosity of travellers in North Africa, and which, in consequence, has acquired a popular reputation that is quite remarkable. Thus the hundred pages which Fuchs (1914) devoted to reptilian colour response contain far more references to chameleons than to all other reptiles taken together. In the present century, with the single exception of the work of Hogben and Mirvish (1928) from this laboratory, no further investigations on the chameleon have been published. Our knowledge of colour change in reptiles has progressed chiefly through the work of Professor G. H. P arker and his many associates. In the New World chameleons do not exist, and consequently the American workers have turned to other lizards, chiefly Anolis and Phrynosoma . Thus it has come about that most modern workers in this field are relatively unfamiliar with the chameleon, and have tended to overlook the many interesting facts concerning colour change in this animal recorded in the earlier literature

XIV. The Lantern and Girdle of Some Recent and Fossil Echinoidea

Two centuries ago Klein (1734) proposed a classification of the Echinoidea based upon the position and character of the “ mouth. ” The clumsy terms “ Emmesostomi ” and “ Apomesostomi ” that he applied to the two main sections of the class have fortunately lapsed ; but the situation of the peristome has been recognized as fundamental in all subsequent schemes of classification. Like Klein’s collateral scheme based on the position of the periproct, this principle has the advantage of being applied with equal ease to recent and fossil forms. In a general way, a central position of the peristome may be taken to imply the presence of jaws, while an eccentric position implies their absence. Thus a classification on that basis divides the Echinoids into two sections which have very different habits. The types that have jaws live in the open, scrambling among rocks, while those without jaws shuffle over silt or may burrow into it. The gnathostomatous condition precedes the atelostomatous both in palaeontology and ontogeny, although both conditions are abundantly represented in the modern fauna.

XI. The effects of vitamins C deficiency on tooth structure in guinea-pigs

Much attention has been given in the last few years to the effects of deficiency of vitamins D and A on dental and parodontal structure; extended clinical tests have been carried out; and the deduction has been drawn that a deficiency of these factors is a not infrequent cause of such common dental ailments as caries and pyorrhoea alveolaris. Vitamin C has received relatively little consideration in this connection; in fact doubt is expressed as to whether it has any practical significance for clinical dental disease, and difference of opinion exists even on the fundamental issue as to whether a deficiency of the vitamin is in any way injurious to the teeth. Thus, on the one side, Mrs. Mellanby (1929) found that lack of vitamin C had no influence on tooth structure in puppies, and concluded it was “improbable that the actual structure of human teeth is greatly affected by a deficient intake of vitamin C.” At the other extreme Howe (1920, 1921, 1923) claimed that by feeding guinea-pigs on a scorbutic diet he had been able to produce with regularity all of the better-known dental lesions seen clinically in humans, including alveolar resorption, spongy gums, pockets and pus formation, together with caries and irregularities in the teeth themselves. He drew the deduction that vitamin C deficiency is an important factor in the aetiology of human dental disease. It will be generally conceded that further work is necessary to clear up the present unsatisfactory position.

XII - On the internal structure of some mesozoic brachiopoda

The present paper shows how a method of research hitherto but tentatively used by a few workers on the internal characters of Brachiopod shells has been elaborated and applied to certain Mesozoic genera of different families, and has resulted in establishing the relationships of the forms examined more satisfactorily than by methods hitherto employed. It embodies some results of two years’ research on the identification and classification of such numerous species of the Brachiopod families Rhynchonellidae, Terebratulidae, and Terebratellidae, as are found in Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks. At the present time less than half of the Mesozoic Brachiopods are specifically determinable, and little or nothing is known of their internal structure, their mutual relationship, or their evolution. This is probably because internal casts are rare, and in Jurassic and Cretaceous species the two valves are not as a rule found detached from one another.

VIII. The Cambrian area of Rushton (Shropshire)

The Cambrian rocks described in this paper lie north of the River Severn between the Wrekin Fault, that runs along the north-west flank of the Wrekin, and the Church Stretton Fault which passes west of Charlton Hill (map, PI. 38). A few exposures on the south-east side of the Wrekin are also mentioned. The area is bounded on the north in part by the outcrop of the Rushton Schist and in part by the Uriconian rocks of Charlton Hill to the south of which a small inlier of these older rocks forms the minor elevation of Brom Hill and is entirely surrounded by the Cambrian beds. The south-eastern part of the area is covered by the Coal Measures of the small coalfield of Dryton, south-east of which we also note the occurrence of an Upper Cambrian ( Ctenopyge ) fauna in Dryton Brook.

V. On the embryology of the crustacean Nebalia Bipes

The relation of the Leptostraca to other groups of Crustacea has long been a problem of interest, although the alliance with the Eumalacostraca has been amply justified (Claus, 1872, 1888, Calm an, 1909). Claus discussed the essentially Malacostracan form of the appendages of Nebalia , and the mode of feeding by the aid of these appendages has been shown (Cannon, 1927) to be a specialized modification of the type shown by the simpler Malacostraca (Cannon and Manton, 1927, Some of the apparent differences between the Leptostraca and the Eumalacostraca have recently been shown to be differences of degree rather than of kind. Thus the seventh abdominal segment of Nebalia is found also in the embryo mysid, but is partially or completely fused with the sixth segment in the adult Lophogaster and Hemimysis respectively (Ma n to n, 1928,a and b). Thus the basal number of abdominal segments in the Eumalacostraca as well as the Leptostraca may be seven. The presence of a large caudal furca in Nebalia may also be a difference of degree, if this furca is homologous with the embryonic furca of a mysid (Manton, 1928, a). Other differences, such as the presence of a fully formed carapace adductor muscle, of cephalic liver lobes, etc., require further investigation. Of the resemblances between the Leptostraca and Eumalacostraca, the mode of development of the former is said to resemble that of the Mysidacea, but the embryology of no Leptostracan has been adequately followed, and the recent work on mysid development has considerably modified many previous views on this subject.

I. The primitive features of the cerebrum, with special reference to the brain of the bushwoman described by Marshall

In 1864 John Marshall, of University College Hospital, London, published in the ‘ Philosophical Transactions ’ an account of a brain of exceptional interest, that of a Bushwoman. The original documents and photographs relating to this brain were recently handed to Professor Elliot Smith by his daughter, Miss Marshall, On his advice these documents have been studied anew.* In making his drawings from these photographs the lithographer made some slight changes which convey an erroneous impression of the primitive features that confer exceptional importance on this Bushwoman’s brain. The progress of knowledge of this subject since 1864 enables us to interpret the photographs in another way and so make this interesting evidence available for the interpretation of such archaic forms of brain as are revealed in the endocranial casts of Pithecanthropus , Sinanthropus , and Eoanthropus . The original photographs represent the dorsal, ventral, lateral, anterior and posterior aspects of both hemispheres and the medial aspect of the left hemisphere. There is no photograph of the medial aspect of the right hemisphere. In addition to the photographs of the brain there are photographs of the head before the removal of the brain, and fortunately a photograph of the left hemisphere in situ within the cranium. Marshall’s photographs are exactly the same size as the lithographic figures ; and he states that the figures agree in size with the preserved brain. He also gives measurements of the cerebrum taken from intracranial casts. There is a small discrepancy between the length of the cerebrum as measured on the photograph showing the brain in the cranium and the figures in his table. The amount of shrinkage is shown in fig. 25, Plate 3. In estimating the form and size of the outline of the endocranial cast of the Bushwoman figured in this paper, Marshall’s maximum figures are taken; allowing for this possible error, his illustrations enable us to reproduce the form fairly accurately. In Marshall' s table of measurements, in which he contrasts the European brain with the Bushwoman’s, the European brain is smaller in certain dimensions. This indicates that he specially selected an abnormally small European brain for comparison.