OLDEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1787, 27 June 1913, Page 8

OLDEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD.

ROMANCE OF SCIENCE. HOW THE HUMAN FACE HAS CHANGED, London, May 16. Tho grinning skull of the oldest woman in the world is now beneath a glass oaso in the large central hall of tho Natural History Muspum at South Kensington for all the world to soo. It was tho discovery of tho fragmentary remains of this skuil tllftt sent such a thrill of excitement throughout the scientific world in the lato autumn of last year. Mr. Charles Dawson, F.S.A., unearthed it from a pit at Piltdown Common, Sussex, in which hp had been engaged in geological excavation for several years, and a great company of distinguished professors gathered at th« meeting of tho Geological Society at which tho discovery was first mado public. It is not an object of beauty, even as skulls may be regarded as varying in gracefulness, but in her defence it may bo pleaded that tho woman was a semisimian, combining in herself the traits of a human being with tho characteristics of tho npo. Scientists regard her as tho one specimen extant of "tho missing link. Her ago eludes one oven now. oho. may liavo lived 50,000 years ago, or 100,000, or even 200,000, for geologists have agreed to differ upon so dclicate a subject; but it is believed that sho belongs to tho Pliocene period, and it is certain that "our rougn island story" was in its very earliest chapters when she walked abroad on tho Sussex Downs.

Her remains form orte of the romantic discoveries that have ever rewarded the researches of a geologist, and although a pilgrimage of scientists to England to inspect them is not predicted this year no geologist from Europe • or America who finds himself in London this summer will miss tho opportunity of leaving his card upon her at South Kensington. The actual remains are not exhibited tu tho general public. They aro being troa« sural with all tho caro that should bo lavished upon rare possessions at a time when her successors in this country aro rather moro mischievous than 6he, pofft simian, ever showed herself to be. Savanta and students may examine them, however. ' What thb goneral public aro shown is a cleverly built-up model of the skull. Tho remains discovered comprised no more than a portion of tho left side of tlio skull and a piece of tlio lower jaw, but with these as a guide Mr. Frank Barlowhas succeeded in reproducing what is regarded as a faithful and reliable model of tho whole. By careful observation aud scientific deduction, the conjunction of tho human and tho simian traits in tho same individual has been reproduced with great skill. The task of making the model has occupied Mr. Barlow for many weeks in tho vast workshops beneath tlio museum. Bj noting tho formation of tho left half of the skull, he explained yesterday, it was possible to build up the right Bido with a considerable degree of certainty, and oil tlio samo plan tho lower jaw could bo completed with a suro touch. While, however, the conformation of the wliolo of the skull could thus bo satisfactorily established, tho appearance of tho facial bones and the upper jaw was largely conjecture. Tho jaw-bono is 1 in every respect characteristic of that of the chimpanzee, and Mr. Barlow said that in reconstructing the model ho had followed the logical course of furnishing it with the dental equipment of tho simian typo. BIG TEETH AND SMALL BRAIN. No modern human being possesses teeth of the sizo and shapo of those seen in this reconstructed model, and moro than anything elso tho powerful teeth and heavy under jaw serve to tho ape-like characteristics of this primitive being. , , A cast of the brain lias been taken from tho re/uored skull and is also on view m the case. While the brain cavity of a normal human being measures over 90 cubic inches this Pliocene skull has a capacity of not moro than cubic, inches, showing that the brain t development of modern woman is one-third greater thali that of her semi-simian ancestor. From tlio greater development of the brain at tho back of the left lobe .it is judged that the individual was right-handed— another item in tho chain of evidenco proving the skull to bo of tho human There can be littlo doubt that tho Pill" down woman's remains, are the earliest yet diseitorabed. They are older than tho fragments found at Neandertal, in Prussia, in 1850, or oven than the jaw found at Heidelberg, in Germany, in 1907. Somo scientists, Professor Klaatsch among them, hold that this primitive tj-po was driven back and extirpated by a higher race of man which existed contemporaneously with it on the earth. There is, however, no real evidence to 6uppoit tins view.—"Daily Mail."