¹ The Skull of Sinanthropus pekinensis ; a comparative study on a primitive hominid skull. By Franz Weidenreich. Palaeontologia Sinica, New Series, No. 10, 1943. Published by the Geological Survey of China. (For sale at the office of G. E. Stechert & Co., 31-33 East 10th Street, New York).

² In the course of his discussion on nomenclature, Weidenreich makes the statement (p. 262) that the present writer ‘himself calls even Homo sapiens an “anthropoid ape”’. It is perhaps permissible to make a mild protest against this statement, for it is not true ; indeed, it is a little difficult to understand how it could have been made. Parenthetically, it must be admitted that Dr Weidenreich seems unusually sensitive (even for a palaeo-anthropologist!) to criticisms of his own interpretations of human fossils, and his fine monograph tends therefore to be a little marred in its later pages by wrangling argumentation. But there is really no need (particularly for one of Weidenreich’s distinction) to take umbrage at criticism, since, with the paucity of data in a subject like that of human palaeontology, alternative interpretations of such material as is available must no doubt be expected and allowed for.

³ Zuckerman has argued that it is not practicable to insist on a taxonomic distinction between Pithecanthropus and Neanderthal man, since in their morphological features they grade into each other too closely. (Eugenics Rev., 1931, XXIV, 273).