Bibliography - British Geological Survey

Doyle, J. C. & Costello, P. 1987. The letter Science 83 refused to print. Baker Street Miscellanea, no. 49,
35–37. (This letter, from Dame Jean Conan Doyle, had been prompted by an article in the journal Science 83
by John Winslow, which accused her father, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of having perpetrated the ‘hoax’ at
Piltdown. She dismisses the article as ‘a piece of silly-season journalism, a mere frivolity.’ Addressed
originally to the editor of Science 83, it was never published until taken up by the present journal.)
Drawhorn, G. M. 1994. Piltdown: evidence of Smith-Woodward’s complicity. Paper presented in a poster
session of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists on 1 April 1994 and reproduced in full on
Richard Harter’s website. (Turrittin 2006, 28–29, states that the presentation was actually made on 31 Mar,
not on April Fool’s Day!)
Drawhorn, G. M. 1996. Piltdown. Pacific Discovery, 49 (4), 45. (A response to Anderson 1996)
Drennan, M. R. 1927. A contribution to the Piltdown problem. Nature, 120 (17 Dec), 874. (The writer,
based in the Anatomy Department, University of Cape Town, presents reasons for a new estimate of the
cranial capacity of the Piltdown skull)
Dubois, E. 1894. Pithecanthropus erectus: eine menschenaehnliche Uebergangsform aus Java. Batavia:
Landesdruckerei, 39 pp, 2 plates. (Eugène Dubois believed that he had found the long sought after ‘missing
link’ with his discovery in 1891 of an ape-like skullcap, a human-looking thighbone and two molar teeth on
the banks of the Solo River in eastern Java, which he dated to the Pliocene. Yet doubts were soon expressed
concerning the professed geological age and mutual relations of the finds. Some scientists considered the
skullcap to belong to a giant gibbon, a view that Dubois himself appears at some stage to have entertained.)
Dubois, E. 1896. On Pithecanthropus erectus: a transitional form between man and the apes. Scientific
Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society, ser. 2, 6 (1), 1–18. (In this English language account of the Java
find, the author emphasises the great age of the bones and teeth in stating that ‘Their colour is chocolatebrown;
they are harder than marble, and very heavy.’ E. T. Newton (1897) was likewise struck by the ‘dark
brown colour’ of the Java bones. One may suppose that the Piltdown forger was similarly impressed.)
Duckworth, W. L. H. 1912 (contribution to discussion in Dawson & Woodward 1912. Philip Tobias, in
Spencer 1990a, ix–x, records conversations with Duckworth, who claimed to have examined the Piltdown
remains before the formal announcement in Dec1912, and ‘had spotted at once that the patina on the cranium
and on the jaw differed. He had written volumes of unpublished observations and reflections on the Piltdown
remains...’ Costello 1986 has implicated Duckworth in the Piltdown fraud on the basis of a rumour at
Cambridge.)
Durrenberger, E. 1965. More about Holmes and the Piltdown problem. Baker Street Journal, 15, 28‒31.
Eastwood, T. & Oakley, K. P. 1953. [Presentation of the Henry Stopes Memorial Medal to Dr. K. P. Oakley
in recognition of his work on the prehistory of Man.] Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 64 (1),
50–51. (At the Annual General Meeting of the Society on 7 Mar 1952, the President, Tom Eastwood of the
Geological Survey, presented Oakley with a medal, noting among other things that ‘In collaboration with the
chemists of the Government Laboratory, you applied the fixation of fluorine in bones and teeth to the dating
of the Swanscombe Skull, to the Galley Hill Skeleton―thus ending more than sixty years of controversy―
and to the Piltdown Skull.’ Oakley in reply, acknowledging those who had given him encouragement, added
‘Nor do I forget...how much I owe to the stimulus of working for a time on the Geological Survey, and thereby
coming into contact with you and your colleagues. Especially would I like to mention Mr. Bromehead, who,
in the course of my work on rock-phosphates during the war, led me to take an interest in the geological
aspects of fluorosis, which had an unexpected outcome; and Mr. Henry Dewey, who introduced me to the
Swanscombe gravels.’)
Edmunds, F. H. 1926 (see under White, H. J. O.)
Edmunds, F. H. 1950. Note on the gravel deposit from which the Piltdown skull was obtained. Abstracts of
the Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, no. 1457, 39–40; reprinted in Quarterly Journal of the
Geological Society of London, 103 (1), 133–134. (Charles Dawson stated, wrongly, that the Piltdown gravel
is situated at 80 ft above the level of the River Ouse, whereas it is only at 50–55 ft. W. J. Sollas (1924, 183)
took Dawson’s figure and converted it to 25 metres, and then equated the Piltdown terrace to the 30 m terrace
of the Thames, thence drawing the deduction that the gravels are probably of Chellean age. ‘Thus was a 50-
foot terrace elevated to a 30-metres, or 100-foot, terrace.’)