Art. LV.—On the Pithecanthropus erectus, from the Tertiary of Java; by O. C. Marsh[1] (With Plate XIII.)
Near the beginning of last year, a discovery was announced that excited great interest throughout the scientific world, especially among those interested in the origin and antiquity of man. The announcement first made was that remains of a veritable missing link between man and the higher apes had been found in Java, in strata of Pleistocene age. The discovery was made by Dr. Eugène Dubois, a surgeon in the Dutch army, who had been stationed in Java for several years, and had devoted much time to the vertebrate fossils of that island.
The first definite information received in this country was in December, 1894, when Dubois's memoir on Pithecanthropus arrived.[2] One of the first copies reached the late Professor Dana just as he was printing the last pages of his great work on geology. He at once wrote to me in Washington, asking me to look up the memoir, and telegraph my opinion of the discovery, so that he could refer to it in his book. On inquiry, I ascertained that this memoir had not then been received at any of the scientific centers in Washington, and that the discovery itself was not known. On returning to New Haven, I found a copy of the memoir awaiting me (received December 29, 1894), and at Professor Dana's, request, I wrote a review of it, which appeared, with illustrations, in this Journal for February, 1895.[3]
The memoir of Dr. Dubois was an admirable one, and, although written in Java, with only limited facilities for consulting the literature on the subject and for comparing the remains described with living and extinct forms to which they were related, the author showed himself to be an anatomist of more than usual attainments, and fully qualified to record the important discovery he had made. In my review, therefore, of this important memoir, I endeavored to state fairly the essential facts of the discovery, as well as the main results reached by Dr. Dubois after a careful study of the remains.
- ↑ Abstract of communication made to the National .Academy of Sciences at Washington, April 24, 1896.
- ↑ Pithecanthropus erectus. Eine menschenaehnliche Uebergangsform aus Java. Von Eug. Dubois, Militairarzt der niederlaendisch-indischen Armee. Mit zwei Tafeln und drei in den Text gedruckten Figuren 4to, Batavia, 1894.
- ↑ The figures then given in Plate II are repeated in the plate accompanying the present article.
