“The Most Notorious Scientific Fraud”

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN BRITAIN

Piltdown man, discovered in 1912, was “the most notorious scientific fraud of the century,” says The Times of London. It was exposed as such in 1953 after scientific tests proved that far from being a missing link in some supposed evolutionary chain of human ascent, the skull was that of a modern man and the lower jaw belonged to an orangutan. Who had perpetrated such a clever hoax?

For years the finger of suspicion pointed to Charles Dawson, the lawyer and amateur geologist who found the remains. Others thought to be implicated were Sir Arthur Keith, an ardent evolutionist and former president of the Royal College of Surgeons; British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; and French priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Conclusive proof was lacking, however, and Dawson was eventually deemed responsible.

Now, the real culprit has been named. He is Martin A. C. Hinton, a former curator of zoology at London’s Natural History Museum, who died in 1961. Nine years ago a canvas trunk that had belonged to Hinton came to light in the museum. Inside were elephant teeth, pieces of a fossil hippopotamus, and other bones, which have been closely analyzed. All were found to be stained with iron and manganese in the same proportions as the Piltdown bones. But the clinching factor was the discovery of chromium in the teeth, also used in the staining process.

Presenting the facts, Professor Brian Gardiner, of King’s College, London, said: “Hinton was known as a practical joker. . . . [His] motive is shown by some letters.” Gardiner concluded: “I’m 100 per cent certain that it was him.” The evidence suggests that Hinton sought revenge on Arthur Smith Woodward, his superior, who had not given him the acknowledgment or the money he felt he deserved. Woodward was successfully duped, and until his death five years before the exposure of the fake, he remained convinced that Piltdown man was genuine. The only question that remains unanswered is, Why did Hinton not own up as soon as Woodward publicly endorsed the fraud? It would seem that because Piltdown man gained acceptance so rapidly throughout the scientific world, Hinton felt that he had no alternative but to live with his lie.

With such eminent men endorsing the Piltdown skull, the public was also taken in. Museums worldwide prominently featured copies and photographs of the skull, while books and periodicals quickly spread the news. The harmful effects of Hinton’s practical joke are incalculable. How apt the Bible’s comment: “Like an idiot throwing firebrands, arrows, and death, such is a man who deceives another and says ‘I was just joking, you know!’”—Proverbs 26:18, 19, Byington.

[Diagram on page 31]

Dark areas are fragments of a human skull

Entire light area fabricated from plaster

Dark areas are fragments of an orangutan jaw and teeth