PREHISTORIC SKELETONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21224, 2 July 1932, Page 7 (Supplement)

PREHISTORIC SKELETONS.

FIFTY THOUSAND YEARS OLD.

An entire family of a new race of prehistoric man, which lived about 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, has been discovered in caves near Mount Carmel, Southern Palestine. The find is described by Sir Arthur Keith, the eminent anthropologist, to a representative of tho Morning Post on May 25, as comparable in importance with that of tho Peking Man. Tho discovery has been made by Mr. Theodore McCown, working for tho British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and the American School of Prehistoric Research. The skeletons number eight and are thought to represent all stages of growth. "It is possible," Sir Arthur stated, " although no definite conclusions can yet be drawn, that this new man may indicate that the main stem of modern man passed nearer to tho line of Neanderthal man than has before been supposed " (Neanderthal man was characterised by a wide, low skull, a thick, bull neck, and a negligible chin). " The new race resembles modern man in some points and Neanderthal man in others, while it has other characteristics which aro entirely unique. We have one specimen, a child of a few years old, in tho Royal College of Surgeons. This was found last year, but I have not before been able to pronounce upon it. In fact, I am still working on it. It took more than five months' laboratory work to remove tho rock which surrounded it.

" I am expecting the rest of the family, of which I have just been notified, in about six weeks time, when Mr. McCown comes home. I estimate that it will tako a year's work to clear the skulls so that accurate measurements can be taken. I havo been able to do this with tho child's skull, but we want to know what the adult members of the race were like. For tho present, their significance must remain uncertain, but it is clear that they are of very great importance. There have been, perhaps, half-a-dozen discoveries in this field of the first importance, and I should number Mr. McCown's work with these.

" There are several elements in the child's skull which are unlike any known race. It has also a pronounced bulge resembling that of a young anthropoid ape Both from the manner of their finding and rough photographs which I have re ceived, it is evident that the new skeletons belong to the same race, and probably the same family. " The level in which the skeletons were found appears to establish the penriod definitely. In terms of years it may, perhaps, bo translated as 40,000 to 50,000 years ago. For the sake of comparison, dates in Egypt and at Ur can be taken back easily to about 4000 8.C., while the line of Neanderthal man parted company with the main human stem perhaps 500,000 years ago." MOSQUITOES AND COLOURS. It is stated that mosquitoes prefer to bite men who wear black socks. It is as if they thought, " I am sure I shall like this fellow. Wo like the same sober hues. No doubt ho will agree with mo, but I am sure that other man over there in the yellow- pullover would give me indigestion." A man of science has just been assuring the public that this is so. A tent lined with navy blue proved a lodestar to Palestine mosquitoes, and no one could sleep in it. Tho men of the United States Army had to be given light shirts to replace their regulation navy blue ones. An experiment spread over 17 days showed that mosquitoes kept in a gauze tent where there were a number of coloured boxes would not alight on the yellow one. Only two iiettled on the white one, while 108 plumped for navy blue, 90 for dark red, and 81 for brown. THE SEARCHLIGHT SIGNAL. A new type of railway signal is being tried which may make the use of fogmen no longer necessary. A powerful lamp throwing a beam of as much as 50,000 candle-power is housed in a lantern, in front of which a red, green, or yellow " spectacle " can be placed by an electric device worked from a signal-box. The signal light can be seen for such a distance that it may suffice in foggy weather without tho detonators of the fogmen. Many other new signalling devices are being tried with ft view to further safety on our railways.