Davidson Black: A Biography 9781487599614

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DAVIDSON BLACK | | A Biography In 1929 a fossilized skull found in Peking was named Sinanthropus pekinensis. Dr. Davidson Black, a Canadian anatomist and anthropologist, was responsible for finding and identifying this important clue to the nature of the ancestors and development of modern Man. Although he won world renown for this important discovery, until now little has been written about the distinguished scientist. In this, the first full account of his life, Mrs. Hood describes first Dr. Blacks education—at the Toronto Model School, where he was one of many pupils who distinguished himself in later life; at Harbord Collegiate in Toronto; and at the School of Medicine of the University of Toronto where he first began to show a marked interest in the study of anatomy. She follows his career then to a teaching position at Western Reserve University, and through the unusual sequence of opportunities that eventually led him to China. It was while Dr. Black was on the staff of the Peking Union Medical College that he was able to pursue his interest in a promising area for human prehistory, and these investigations culminated in the discovery of Peking Man. Mrs. Hood has succeeded in bringing together with care and perception the story of Dr. Black and his work, which was scattered in many places, and does so with an ease and simplicity of expression which will attract her readers. The fascination of Davidson Blacks devotion to the exploration of the mysteries of human pre-history has been well rendered. DORA HOOD, a distinguished Canadian bibliophile, was proprietor of Dora Hood's Book Room from 1927 until her retirement in 1954.

Ashley & Crippen

DAVIDSON BLACK, F.R.S., M..A., M..D., HON.D.SC. (Toronto)

Davidson Black

A BIOGRAPHY

DORA HOOD

University of Toronto Press

© University of Toronto Press 1964

The two illustrations from William Howells' Mankind in the Making are reproduced by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc. and Martin Seeker & Warburg Limited

Preface

IT WAS a day of autumn splendour in 1958 when I set out across the campus of the University of Toronto to begin research for a biography of Davidson Black, the little known Canadian anatomist and anthropologist who had, with brilliant discernment, found and identified Sinanthropus pekinensis (Peking Man). I remembered the vivid impression made on my unscientific though inquisitive mind when it was announced in 1929 that a Canadian had discovered in China the fossilized skull of "early man." A few years later the sudden death of Davidson Black in Peking had shocked his friends, and the episode of his discovery was closed as far as the general public in Canada was concerned. Ten years after the announcement of the discovery of Peking Man, I happened to be in Washington and was invited by a member of the Smithsonian Institution to make a tour of that museum. My guide asked me what I would most like to see. Even now I am surprised at my reply. "The cast of the skull of Peking Man," I said, and there it was, in its glass case, so perfectly made that it might have been the original—a remote, challenging relic of a world not ours. It had never occurred to me then to wonder why it was not on view anywhere in Canada. My first appointment that autumn afternoon in 1958 was with Dr. J. C. B. Grant, professor emeritus in the Department of Anatomy. He was to be found daily in his former office revising his monumental Atlas of Anatomy. I told him I had been unable to find any account of Dr. Davidson Black's work written by a Canadian, beyond a brief

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notice of his death in the University of Toronto Monthly in 1934, and an outline of his life in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography by W. S. Wallace. I asked Dr. Grant if there should not be some more substantial record of the work of this man, born and educated in Canada, who had won world renown but who had died at the height of his career in Peking at the early age of forty-nine. Dr. Grant said that such a task should certainly be undertaken; it was indeed long overdue. Dr. Grant, always a man of action, was not content with giving advice. He went straight to work and from his own excellent library and his retentive memory made a list of medical men and anatomists, many of them former colleagues of Black's, to whom I could write. This gave me my first acquaintance with the world-wide fraternity of anatomists. Dr. Grant suggested that it would be interesting and helpful if letters to and from Black could be found, even though the chances of getting them might be remote, since his whole professional life had been spent outside Canada. Moreover, the years after his death in China had been troubled ones for that country: Japanese occupation, a major war, an uneasy period of reconstruction, and a revolution. I was elated by Dr. Grant's encouragement. With his list in my pocket I continued my walk through Queen's Park to the Royal Ontario Museum where I dropped in to have a talk with an old friend, Mr. James Baillie, the ornithologist, who, no matter how occupied, never gives the impression that he cannot spend a few minutes with a caller. He asked me what I was doing now that my book on my life as a bookseller was published. With premature confidence, I said I was going to write a biography of Davidson Black. At that he sprang to his feet and went to his file, saying, "I can help you. Black was a keen ornithologist in his youth, and I can give you two of his early letters and a list of specimens he donated to us." It was a fruitful day's work, but a long and sometimes discouraging journey lay before me. While I waited for replies to the letters I had sent to Black's friends, I began to search the libraries for books on anthropology and archaeology in which Black's work might be mentioned. The first discovery was a book called Children of the Yellow Earth: Studies in Prehistoric China (London, 1934) by J. Gunnar Andersson, late director

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of the Geological Survey of Sweden and mining adviser to the Chinese Government. It was an excellent English translation and to my pleasure I read: "This volume is dedicated to the memory of my charming friend, Davidson Black (March 15, 1934), Professor at the Peking Union Medical College who with such penetrating genius identified Sinanthropus pekinensis." This delightful book covered the exact period of Black's work in China on which I needed information and the author, being a geologist, gave me the necessary background. My next find was a small book by Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, famous in his day as the leading anatomist and authority on human fossils. It was called The Search for Man's Ancestors (London, 1931). This also was dedicated to Black. In the obituary volume of the Royal Society of London (1932-1935), I found a warmly appreciative account of his life by the same friendly hand. I have studied numerous books on anthropology published from 1935 to the present day. Most of them credited Davidson Black, the Canadian, with the epoch-making finds in China, but none of them traced his life leading up to these events. Although Black's widow and children still lived in Canada, they were unable to find any of his correspondence. But Mrs. Black generously allowed me to study the privately printed Memorial Volume presented to her on May 11, 1934, in Peking, two months after her husband's death, which contained addresses by his friends and fellow-workers in China at that time. Among these were four Chinese, four Americans and one Frenchman. Each contributor told of the impact of Black's personality on him and gave instances of the value of his work for prehistoric Chinese research. This volume was given only to Black's closest friends and is not to be found in libraries. It has been invaluable to his biographer. What extracts have been taken from it are identified as "from the Memorial Volume." Particularly valuable was the contribution of Dr. Paul H. Stevenson, Associate Professor of Anatomy at the Peking Union Medical College. Formerly a medical missionary, he travelled widely in China and spoke the language fluently. In due course and with praiseworthy promptness, replies began to reach me from Black's friends and fellow doctors in the United States and Europe. All the letters began with an expression of pleasure that, at last, an attempt was being made to record his life. As one of them

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expressed it, "He was a dedicated and imaginative scientist who added a large area of factual knowledge to the world's store." My gratitude is unbounded for the help and encouragement given me by Dr. A. B. Droogleever Fortuyn of the Netherlands, Black's close associate and friend in the Anatomy Department of the Peking Union Medical College from 1925. From his diaries and letters, which fortunately were preserved through the troubled years, and which he allowed me to study, I was able to form a picture of life and events in China. With the skill of a practised researcher, he also found many letters to and from Black in London, Amsterdam, and Leiden and put me in touch with friends of Black in other places. In 1958, while in Europe, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. and Mrs. Fortuyn and in talks with them gained an insight into life in Peking during the period from 1920 to 1942, which I could not have obtained in any other way. Dr. Fortuyn's help in solving innumerable problems has been given with the utmost generosity. From Dr. Henry S. Houghton I have had great help and encouragement from the beginning. As director of the Peking Union Medical College for many years and as a resident in China previously, he knew the scene in which the fifteen important years of Black's life were spent, and it was through his faith in Black that the latter was able to bring his efforts to such a successful conclusion. Dr. George B. Barbour, noted physiographer, in many forthright ways gave me much help, generously providing me with essential books and memoranda. Vivid pictures of Black's life in various periods of his career have been supplied by Dr. W. H. Piersol of Toronto, Dr. Hsien Wu, Dr. Franklin C. McLean of Chicago, Dr. Gerhardt von Bonin of Wurzburg-am-Main, Germany, Dr. H. Neckles of Chicago, and Dr. John Cameron of Scotland. It was, too, a great pleasure to hear so fully from Dr. E. V. Cowdry about his companionship with Black in their university days and later in China. Two people who gave assistance that no one else could have done were Mrs. Gowen (née Hempel), Black's able and devoted secretary for nine years in China, and Mr. Norman Black of Vancouver, his first cousin, who lent me books and papers and with great charm and humour traced his ancestry.

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It is difficult for a biographer to say from whom he receives most help. The structure rises like a building, and who is to say which is most important, the foundation or the roof? Miss Agnes Pearce, of the China Medical Board, New York, searched old files and allowed me to take copies of Black's letters. To work in the quiet atmosphere of this office and to know questions would be answered readily was balm to the spirit of this often harassed researcher. I am also grateful to the secretaries of the American Museum of Natural History who dug from their files letters that had lain undisturbed for thirty years and allowed me to have copies of those I needed. To Mrs. Galt and her assistants in the Medical Library of the University of Toronto a special word of thanks is due for the cheerful help they gave me in looking up references and supplying books. Professor L. C. Walmsley of the Department of East Asiatic Studies in the University of Toronto, twenty years of whose life were spent in Western China, gave me much needed instruction in the complicated political history of China. His excellent library of books on China was at my disposal and any historical mistakes are entirely due to my lack of comprehension. I had only a few facts to guide me about Black's early life, but it was a simple and pleasant task to describe his environment since it tallied closely with my own youth in Toronto. Yet for me to write a biography of a scientific man was a special challenge. Any attempt at a treatise on physical anthropology at the same time would, of course, have been presumptuous and impossible for anyone not a scientist. Fortunately there are now some excellent books by those who have devoted their lives to this profound subject, which may be enjoyed by the layman. It is from one of these that I have taken the scientific facts it was essential to use in my narrative. When I began my study one of the very few full-time physical anthropologists in Canada was on the staff of the University of Toronto, J. E. Anderson, M.D., now at the University of Buffalo. Through his efforts certain casts of Davidson Black's Peking Man, after years of cupboard obscurity, had been brought together at Toronto and are now brilliantly displayed in the fine laboratories of the Arts Building. To these Dr. Anderson had added by purchase

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others not in the anatomy department collection and it is hoped in time that there will be a complete set of casts of all the hominid fossils found during Black's lifetime in the caves of Chou-K'ou-tien. Some explanation is needed of the use and spelling of two important names which occur frequently in the story of Black's life. Peking, the scene of his activities for fifteen years, has undergone as many changes in spelling and pronunciation as it has in government. It seemed simpler to use the old form, Peking, throughout the period. A change, too, has taken place in the name applied by Black to his fossil discoveries. In all the correspondence I have quoted, as well as in the books and reports, the name Sinanthropus pekinensis is used consistently, and for that reason has been retained. I have on occasion exercised the writer's privilege and have lapsed into the simpler form of Peking Man. The present-day designation of Pithecanthropus pekinensis is discussed in a note at the end of the book.

D.H.

Contents

PREFACE

V

1

Toronto and the North Country

3

2

Western Reserve and Manchester

16

3 The First World War

32

4

Peking Union Medical College

46

5

Black's Scientific Circle

59

6

The College Amidst Civil War

72

7

Anthropology

83

8

Sinanthropus pekinensis

97

9

Honours

10 Aftermath

108 127

APPENDIXES

I II

Peking Man Three Decades after Discovery

135

Bibliography of Davidson Black's Writings

137

INDEX

143

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DAVIDSON BLACK

A Biography

DAVIDSON BLACK, F.R.S. 1932; M.A., M.D., HON. D.Sc. (Toronto). Professor of Anatomy, Peking Union Medical College, and Hon. Director, Cenozoic Research Laboratory, National Geological Survey of China. HONOURS: Grabau Gold Medal, Geological Society of China, 1929; Hon. Corr. Member, Geological Division, Academia Sínica, 1930; Hon. Corr. Member Gallon Society of New York, 1930; Daniel Giraud Eliot Medal and Hon., National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., 1931; Hon. Corr. Member Field Museum of Natural History, 1932; Hon. Fellow, Royal Anthropological Institute, 1931; Hon. Fellow, National Institute of History and Philology, China, 1932; King Gold Medal, Peking Society of Natural History, 1932; Fellow, Royal Society of London, 1932; Fellow, Geological Society of America, 1933.

CHAPTER

ONE

Toronto and the North Country

"No ONE who met Davidson Black ever forgot him. His vivid personality . . . the surprising range of his knowledge, the meticulous precision of his working methods, his blend of enthusiasm and sane judgment, and his unassuming modesty left their mark on all with whom he came in contact."1 So wrote Dr. George B. Barbour, friend and colleague of Black in the adventure of his life in China. And yet the footsteps of this man in his native Canada are faint and difficult to follow, although he remained a staunch and patriotic son of his country till the end of his short and fruitful life. Thirty years before Davidson Black was born in Toronto, in 1884, a young Scottish archaeologist arrived there to take up his new life as a professor at University College, a forerunner of a university which was emerging in the rapidly growing city. Daniel Wilson was only thirty-seven when he left his beloved Edinburgh, yet he had already made a name for himself by publishing a book which had impressed the learned, called The Prehistoric Annals of Scotland (1851). Archaeology as a science was then beginning to take a place, if only a minor one, in the old world, and it was acknowledged that Wilson had coined the intriguing word "prehistoric" to describe his discoveries. When he had established himself in Canada West, it was natural that he should pursue his quest in the new environment, only to find that archaeological research had made little impression on the population save for a handful of devotees. But, being an industrious man 1. "Memorial of Davidson Black" by George B. Barbour, in Proceedings, Geological Society of America (1934).

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whose duties with his class of eighteen undergraduates were light, he now turned his thoughts to the kindred field of anthropology and in 1862 produced two large volumes which he called Prehistoric Man. In the preface to this work, he claimed that he was the first to use in his earlier work in 1851 the term "prehistoric" as applied to man.2 To rouse his readers' interest he urged them to explore with him "the great darkness that lies behind us." But it is unlikely that these volumes ever came into the hands of the male child born in 1884, not far from the place where they were written, who was to spend nearly half his forty-nine years as a remarkably successful penetrator into the obscurity of the remote past. The immediate forebears of Davidson Black, the Blacks and the Delameres, arrived in Canada in the mid-nineteenth century and established themselves in their professions with a determination to become Canadians. Although thirty-four generations of Delameres had intervened between the Canadians bearing that name and their adventurous forebears of the ninth century, their history is worth recording briefly for its romantic story and, particularly, because of the kinship Davidson Black felt in his mature years with these questing ancestors. To quote the chronicle, "Rollo, the Dane, having at the close of the ninth century established a settlement for himself and his people in Normandy, obtained in 912 the hand of Gisler, daughter of Charles the Simple, King of France; and by her had, among other children, Griselda, whom he gave in marriage to Fitz-Hubert, an able commander of Rollo's fleet, and popularly styled 'De-la-Mer.' " Hereafter the name appears several times: as that of a knight of William the Conqueror; again as that of a member of the first Crusade of 1099; and later as that of one who went to Ireland with Strongbow. In Ireland the family was given a tract in Western Meath, and remained there to contribute fighting men to the major battle fields of mediaeval Europe. Eventually, about 1852, a Delamere family left the British Isles and set sail for Canada. The Delamere grandparents of Davidson settled in Toronto with their four young sons and two daughters. The boys grew up to become successful lawyers and military men, and the youngest daughter, Margaret Bowes, married Davidson Black and bore him two sons, Redmond and Davidson. 2. H. H. Langton, Sir Daniel Wilson: A Memoir (Toronto, 1929).

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5

The Blacks, too, had lives of adventure, although we know only of their movements as recently as Queen Anne's time. The family appears to have been a sept of the MacGregors, whose history, as all know, was far from peaceful. The Blacks of 1700 moved south of the border near Carlisle and cultivated the same land until the end of the eighteenth century. In 1840 they arrived in Montreal. Norman Black, an elder cousin of Davidson's, tells in a succinct style of his forebears' reaction to the Canadian way of life: "In Montreal my grandfather established a promising connection with the Montreal Witness. This journal then was and long remained the de facto organ of Presbyterianism and political liberalism. At that stage in our family history grandfather was offered a place on the editorial staff that would have ensured opportunity to cultivate his probably considerable talent as a writer and provided escape from the poverty that plagued the Blacks from generation to generation. However, my grandfather, whom I remember as a gentle and lovable old man, was also a most pigheaded Puritan who found the dictates of duty in the sacrifice of economic advantages and refused to imperil the souls of his children by contact with the sins and temptations of city life. Accordingly he moved further west, settling at or near Whitby in Ontario. This meant return to school teaching until Uncle Dave upset the very foundation of things by going into law in Toronto, associating with Tories and Anglicans and, finally, marrying a lovely young aristocat, Margaret Bowes Delamere. She came into the family with a most unfair advantage, to wit, nobody could help loving her —the Blacks were never quite the same again. I am prepared to wager that most of them were admirable people and were well aware of the fact!" Davidson Black and Margaret Delamere were married in 1879 and began their life together in a house in St. Vincent Street in a residential district not far from the University which is now absorbed in one of the main arteries of the city. It was in this house that Davidson Black was born on July 25th, 1884. His older brother had been born four years earlier. From his father Davidson Black inherited his keen analytical mind and possibly his gift for expressing himself in writing; from his mother, his warm-hearted and responsive nature, together with his tenacity to pursue anything he considered worth his labour.

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DAVIDSON BLACK, A BIOGRAPHY

A secure life seemed to stretch ahead for the Blacks with their two young sons. The lawyer was made a Queen's Counsel in recognition of his work, a distinction rarer in those days in Canada than at the present time. There was a large generation of cousins growing up around them and friends were numerous within walking distance. But it was not to be so for long. With shattering suddenness the father died at forty-nine, leaving his wife with their sons, Redmond, six years' old, and Davidson, only two. Margaret Black's brothers were quick to offer help; they fully expected that she would bring her boys to live with one of them. But, from the first, Margaret made it clear that she herself would now provide for her children and make a home for them. It was most unusual, when the Victorian era had still some years yet to run, that a married woman of her upbringing would "go out to work." But this she intended to do, only seeking her brother Tom's help as a lawyer to find her a suitable post in Osgoode Hall, the fine old building which has for many years housed the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Judges' Chambers, and the Law Courts of Ontario. The comfortable house on St. Vincent Street was soon given up, and a smaller one found on Anderson Street, within walking distance of Osgoode Hall. Around the corner, on Simcoe Street, lived many of Margaret's friends, chief among them the lively and growing family of the Tom Delameres. Here the Black boys grew up while their mother worked on at her government post. Even after her sons were able to provide for themselves, she refused to resign, concealing her age, it is said, lest she be pensioned off. The gap left in her life by the loss of her husband was filled as the years passed by the activities of her sons, the steady, unimaginative Redmond, and the light-hearted, mercurial Davidson, whose curiosity about the world around him at times led him far afield. In appearance Davidson was fair-haired with lively blue eyes and a wide, laughing mouth and, according to the memory of contemporaries, no beauty. But all agree that he was great fun as a playmate. To his mother, he brought at an early age his treasures—toads, birds, snakes and beetles, alive or dead—and it must be mentioned to her credit that she did not perceptibly recoil when they were laid in her lap. A bond of understanding was formed between mother and son which lasted throughout her life.

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7

When Davidson reached school age, he became, like many of his contemporaries, a pupil at the Model School on Gerrard Street, just east of Yonge Street, the main thoroughfare of the city. This school was midway between a private and a public school; that is, it was not a free school as were the other public schools throughout the province, in that every month the pupils were required to bring with them two dollars, which was duly collected by the teacher of each class. The boys' school was established in 1848 and proved such a success that a girls' division was added ten years afterwards. Boys and girls occupied separate buildings, with ample, shady playgrounds for each. The teachers of the four classes, or the eight grades as they are now called, were especially picked, since the main function of the school was to provide a practising ground for young men and women who were in training as teachers at the Toronto Normal School. In spite of the pupils occasionally having to endure the efforts of a long line of good, bad and indifferent student teachers sandwiched in between their regular teachers, the school had an excellent reputation. It built up a tradition of good behaviour and sound elementary scholarship and an impressive number of its "old" boys and girls distinguished themselves in later life. The next move for Davidson was to a high school. There were only three in the city at that time and, fortunately, Harbord Street Collegiate was within walking distance of the little house in Anderson Street. "Harbord" became famous for its excellent principals and teachers, both men and women. The classes were still small enough for the pupils to come in close contact with their teachers, and it is possible that Davidson's taste for natural history was fostered by the influence of the principal, Dr. Spotton, whose textbooks of botany had long been in use in the school. Graduation from the top class in the collegiate was accepted as entrance to the University of Toronto. Toronto was a pleasant place in which to spend the two glorious months of the holidays and, as few of the inhabitants then had summer cottages, the tree-shaded streets were thronged with children. The city had three great natural advantages; it was flanked on east and west by rivers, the Don and the Humber, and on the south by the tree-fringed sand bar, known simply as "the island." These were places of adventure and exploration and they became more accessible to the young about 1895 with the arrival of the bicycle. Whatever else

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DAVIDSON BLACK, A BIOGRAPHY

a boy wanted he would willingly forego, provided he could have a bike. Soon the city streets were crowded with wobbling groups of children heading for the Don and the Humber and the beaches of the lake shore. To Davidson, the many tributaries of the Don were special places of wonder. Wild life was plentiful and where the streams carved their courses out of the shale it was possible to find fossilized imprints of long-extinct animals and fish. Bird life was one of his chief delights, although, like many another, he probably recognized the habits, nests, and eggs of numerous varieties long before he could put a name to any of them. There was one unfortunate episode in those wanderings. It was in the late fall that Davidson and a companion set out to explore the swamps and sand dunes of a place known as Ashbridge's Bay. The expedition led them far afield and by the time they turned homeward they were wet and cold. This resulted in a long and serious illness for Davidson, diagnosed as rheumatic fever. Through the whole of his fourteenth year he was bedridden. During this long illness he was looked after by the kind and friendly Dr. Strange, whose name was a legend at that period in Toronto. The child and the doctor became devoted to each other, and it is thought by some of his contemporaries that this contact was responsible for Davidson's choice of a profession a few years later. Davidson's maternal uncles were expert paddlers and spent their holidays camping on the Kawartha Lakes. As Davidson grew into his teens he was taken as chore boy on these trips. Not only did he get training as a canoeist but he was taught the importance of keeping accurate notes on weather, time, supplies, and wild life, and the dozen and one details that lead to safe and successful expeditions. This habit learned so thoroughly in his youth paid excellent dividends later for his work in Asia depended on minute documentation. The time came when summer was to mean much more than carefree trips with his uncles. He had made up his mind to take his medical course at the university and must earn what he could in his holidays. There were jobs to be had in the wild country of northern Ontario and these had a strong attraction for him. Mining and lumber companies wanted young men, self-reliant and ready to "rough it." The Hudson's Bay Company had work for clerks and for

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those who could bring in supplies. There were prospecting companies and surveying expeditions and, although the money earned was not great, the experience gained was boundless. There is no record of the companies Davidson worked for, except that he was once with the Hudson's Bay Company, but it is known that he spent many summers of his youth in northern Ontario. These trips had to be carefully planned as to clothing and kit. Too much or too little of any equipment might mean disaster. Discomforts and pleasures were about equally divided during the actual expeditions. There were mosquitoes and black flies in the early summer, with other pests in late August. Long portages and wet camp sites were stacked against the refreshing swim in some lake or stream perhaps unvisited before by white men, and the pleasure of cooking an appetizing meal over a neat camp fire. The chief charm for an adventurous spirit was to be on his own to win or lose against nature. Once, a tale runs, he was encircled by a great forest fire and spent two nights and a day standing in a lake, with only his head above the water line. He found little difficulty in getting on with the Indians, chiefly Ojibways, and was called affectionately by them Mushkemush Kemit, meaning "Little White Muskrat." On these trips, wherever it was possible, Davidson sent long letters to his mother, and while she deplored his uncertain spelling, she was intensely proud of her son's ability to describe his life in the wilds. This was not an easy thing to do, day after day, but he seemed to know that he had an appreciative reader and enjoyed being a teller of tales. There is a well-founded tradition in the family that the letters were read aloud to his numerous friendly cousins and that these readings were actually welcomed rather than avoided. Alas! Not one of the letters survives. A diary kept by one of the girls he knew does exist which relates a characteristic episode of Davidson's life as he grew to manhood. A regular winter expedition of the youth of that period was to walk on the ice-covered bay to the deserted and shelterless island. On fine Saturday or Sunday afternoons there was a rather stimulating feeling of risk, for cracks and holes occasionally developed. On one occasion Davidson and a group of his friends started across the two miles of snow-covered ice in good spirits, but on the return tramp a wind had risen and one of the girls stumbled and fell into a hole. It is a

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DAVIDSON BLACK, A BIOGRAPHY

difficult matter to rescue a person from such a disaster but Davidson was quick to find a way, and pulled the dripping girl from the icy water. More happy scenes are recorded in this old diary. In no uncertain terms Davidson is described as the best company one could find for a ramble in the woods. As long as he was around there were jokes and laughter, but when the brief holiday came to an end and he departed townwards to the university, the diarist frankly declared the sun did not shine so brightly. The letters of youths between the ages of fifteen and twenty are seldom preserved, although they might well be, could we foresee the future. Two of Black's have come to light, both written to the same friend and from addresses that give a clue to his activities and tastes during the summers of 1903 and 1904. His correspondent, twelve years his senior, remained his friend throughout his life, although their paths diverged widely. Two more letters were filed away by this methodical hand: one from Peking in 1931, and the last from Toronto in 1933. The bond between the youthful Black and James Henry Fleming was ornithology. Fleming's career as a bird lover began early in life. The boy had a good education and at the age of twelve became, like many another, an ardent collector of nests and eggs. But, unlike the majority, he persisted in his hobby and by sixteen was elected an associate member of the Royal Canadian Institute. The small provincial museum in Toronto, a starved and dusty affair, was housed in the Normal School and gave little encouragement to the young Fleming to add his specimens to it. It was probably on this account that he set up his own one-man museum which eventually became famous and was a mecca for visiting birdmen from the great centres of the world. Fleming's means allowed him to devote his entire life to this pursuit. The bibliography of his writings on the subject covers the period from 1890 till his death in 1941 at the age of sixty-eight. His biographer, Dr. L. L. Snyder, says: "To the best of my knowledge his collection is the most representative private collection of birds in the world." The Royal Ontario Museum now possesses this unique collection, together with all his files and notes, and among the latter were discovered the only youthful letters of Black's which have survived. As this is a book about anthropologists and archaeologists, their

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discoveries, their difficulties with "planted" specimens and their occasional triumphs, it might be appropriate to relate one story of the deflection of some of Fleming's contemporary ornithologists. Dr. Snyder begins his account of this affair 3 by stating that the only Curlew Sandpiper ever found in Toronto was shot about 1886 and, after being mounted, was displayed in a local gun club. Fleming, it appears, knew about it, though only a lad at that time. Trouble arose when two of the members of the club who both claimed to have shot the bird took to fisticuffs and, in the scuffle, the case in which the bird was displayed was broken open. When the smoke of battle cleared, only one leg and the head remained of the precious Curlew Sandpiper. These were taken for safe keeping to the local taxidermist, Sam Herring, and it was from him that Fleming in 1894 acquired the valuable head. On Februrary 2, 1911, Fleming carefully noted in his records that he had recognized the body of the bird, now equipped with the head and legs of a Red-backed Sandpiper, in the case of another collector. Years passed and all trace of the Curlew disappeared until it was again discovered by Fleming among some specimens in a local school room. On October 4, 1932, through legal channels the hybrid was removed to his own collection and thus, after forty years, the head and the body were united and became an honoured rarity once more. The ramifications of the story of the discredited Piltdown Man did not have as satisfactory an ending. Fleming's interest in the fauna and flora of the Canadian forest is shown in the first letter he preserved of Black's written from Minden in the Haliburton district, at that time a place remote from city life. He seems to have given the boy a congenial commission to collect specimens for his museum and his botanical garden. Inherent in the letter are two characteristics marked in Black's later life—his preference for working at night and his passionate urge to press on to a definite goal. I have at last found the orchids that you wanted. I got seven plants in a Tamarack swamp. They are of the pink and white variety. I have one which is a yellow one and have labeled it. I happened to be wading about the pitcher plant and found that it was carnivorous and was a regular bug trap so I sent it to you as well, thinking you might not have any. It and the orchids require damp mossy ground or soil. The yellow, however, I found in comparatively dry loam. I sent the box this afternoon. 3. L. L. Snyder, "James H. Fleming," The Auk, LVIII (1941).

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DAVIDSON BLACK, A BIOGRAPHY

If I get any better specimens I will bring them home with me. Were there any other plants you want because I am in the land of wild flowers? I have sixty butterflies all put away now and expect a big haul of moths as I am going to spend tomorrow night at them with a sheet and a light. I have not come across any woodpeckers yet of the kind you described to me, but I live in hope. Please let me know if I can do anything in the line of birds, bugs etc as I like anything of that description and I like the feeling of going in search of any particular thing. As for myself I am O. K. and enjoying myself. However, I don't see where my microscope is to come from in the fall unless I get a good many more specimens. Your gun works like a charm now I have got used to it. In 1903, at the early age of eighteen, Black entered the School of Medicine of the University of Toronto. The teaching of medicine in Ontario had had a long and contentious history. Fortunately it was Black's fate to begin his career when the new medical building was completed and "the long war between the various medical schools in Toronto was brought to an end," as W. S. Wallace puts it in his History of the University of Toronto. Eager as Black was in pursuit of all congenial undertakings, he was not considered exceptionally clever in the accepted sense of the word; nor was he a plodder, reaching his goal by hard, uninspired work. It was more a matter of seeing quickly what was going to interest him and seizing every chance to get to grips with the subject. This characteristic, strongly evident as he developed, was to help him in his final choice of a career. By 1904 he was beginning to study in earnest, showing a marked attraction for anatomy. A backward glance at the teaching of anatomy in the medical course at this period has been given by Dr. E. V. Cowdry, a fellow student and life-long friend of Black's, now of the Department of Anatomy at Washington University in St. Louis. "The teaching of anatomy," he wrote to the author in 1960, "compared only fairly well with others at the time Black and I were there. It was essentially a teaching department with research conspicuous by its absence, or near absence. The teaching, however, was well done in accordance with the British system. The classes were too large as I recall with over two hundred in each." Years later Black himself, writing from Peking to his friend Dr. Wood Jones, comments on other aspects of his medical course: "I have a vivid recollection of my own

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attitude at the end of my second year of medicine when I had not even heard the mention of a clinical term nor seen the inside of a hospital." It is not surprising that his life as a medical student should be unrecorded, but with the coming of the long summer holidays it is possible occasionally to follow his footsteps, bent on research, into his old haunts, the woods and the lakes. The cities and towns of the province of Ontario for many years tended to cluster along its great waterways, the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. Behind these stretch rich farm lands, but it is only a short hundred miles or so to the north of these farms that the grey rocky shoulders of the Pre-Cambrian Shield begin to appear in the fields and wood lots and, finally, take possession of the whole landscape. It is rough country and perforce was slow to open up. There were, however, among the town dwellers a growing number of mature men who loved these regions and whose occupations allowed them to spend the halcyon days of the Canadian summer out of doors and remote from towns. Among them was a group of university professors who met to discuss the possibility of jointly buying a tract of land to be used in the summer and kept forever free from the encroachment of railways and other undesirable advances of civilization. At first a place was found on the Madawaska River;4 this was later abandoned and a lovely island-dotted inlet on the Georgian Bay was selected, known by the cryptic name of "Go Home Bay," though the euphonious Madawaska was kept as the name of the club. The members of this joint stock company were required to be graduates of a university, and this rule still holds good. The club took possession in 1898 and its traditions have been carried on to the third and fourth generations. Their loyalty and devotion to the place and organization are a byword. With such a membership it was natural that the intellectual standard of the club was high and it was not long before a group of men headed by Professor W. L. Loudon suggested that the establishment of a biological laboratory in the club area would be an appropriate addition. A petition was presented to the government at Ottawa for assistance, and, to the surprise and delight of the officers, a generous grant was offered by the Department of Marine and 4. From a publication of the Madawaska Club, Go Home Bay: The Twenty-five Years, 1898-1923, by B. A. Bensley (privately printed).

First

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DAVIDSON BLACK, A BIOGRAPHY

Fisheries in 1901. There were only two other biological stations in Canada at that time, one on the Atlantic coast and another on the Pacific. The Madawaska station could only remain open for the summer months. A house was built, well equipped with instruments and a library, and under the care of Professor B. A. Bensley the station flourished from 1902 to 1911; from then until it closed it was under Professor E. W. Walker's care. Davidson Black and two or three other young biologists spent the summer of 1904 at the station with great profit to themselves and perhaps, as a result of this experience, some benefit to science in general. Black wrote to J. H. Fleming from Go Home Bay in August of 1904 and his characteristic letter gives a good picture of the life. BIOLOGICAL STATION, Go HOME BAY AUGUST 21, 1904 I have a rattler5 at last. I thought for a while I would not be able to get one but the unexpected often happens. I nearly stepped on him in a grassy swamp where I was tramping bare foot. I had nothing to bring him back in but I found a piece of string and put a loop over his head and carried him round with me for the rest of the afternoon. I did not want to hurt him as I wanted to get some venom and also observe his habits. At present he is alive and rattling in a box I made for him. It is a Missisauga. The common type is not found at all here. We have got four already this year and numbers more have been killed up the bay. This place is O.K. and lots of time for collecting. This seems to be rather a poor district for birds, at least a lot of tramping has to be done to find them. So far I have only got twenty-seven birds but among them there are only two duplicates, two ovenbirds and two whip-poor-wills. I forgot to say two hummingbirds. I have some warblers in odd plumage. In fact, I have one or two that I will bring down to make sure what they are. The only other bird that troubles me is a sparrow. I will bring him down. I have several pink orchids growing. I will bring them down with the snake. By the way, he has five rattles and is about two feet four inches long and his fangs are fine—they are over half an inch. Your list has been of great assistance to me. We have one bird not recorded, however, the black tern (also the common tern) and the blackbilled plover. We are very comfortable here. A nice house just built for us and a man who cooks and washes up. The grub is O.K. and weather fine. It is a great place for getting biological training—at least in practical work. We have an excellent library for reference. I don't know when we close, but I expect about the fifteenth (September). I wish you could have a squint at this place for a week or so. 5. The Missisauga rattlesnake is the only venomous snake in Canada.

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It is not certain how many summers Black served at this station. Dr. W. H. Piersol said in 1960: "I was at the Go Home Bay several summers and I know I saw Black there. He wished to become a member of the club and I put in his application, and he was accepted and bought a share, but before he made use of the membership he had gone to China." While Black was absorbed in dissecting his specimens, romance hovered near. A party of young girls from a neighbouring island visited the Biological Station, bent more on rounding up some male company than on scientific research. Had Black by chance raised his eyes from his work of extracting the rattles from his snake he might have seen the beautiful young woman whose path was not to cross his again for ten long years.

CHAPTER TWO

Western Reserve and Manchester

By 1906 Black had completed his medical course and could now, at twenty-two, add the distinguishing letters "M.D." after his name. The practice of medicine did not appeal to him, possibly because of his youth, and had it not been for the keen interest shown in his career by two stalwarts among his professors he might have been very much at sea. J. Playfair McMurrich, his anatomy teacher, was a fine scholar with wide interests, whose leisure besides was given to a history of anatomy from the earliest times, the study of Sanskrit, and, late at night, the reading of first-class detective stories. He marked Black's independent approach to his study of anatomy and took a keen interest in his career. Years after he made Black an offer which might have changed his life. The influence of Dr. A. B. Macallum on Black had more immediate results, and it speaks well for the young doctor that he recognized the wisdom of the advice offered him and acted on it. Dr. Macallum, born in Ontario in 1858, had a brilliant career as a professor of physiology and physiological chemistry and at all times his influence on his young students was marked. He was a voracious reader, not confining himself to any one field. With a marked capacity to master any subject that caught his interest, he enjoyed a reputation of wide learning. It may be that he saw in Black the same desire as he had felt to branch out and acquire knowledge of subjects not included in the then narrow teaching of medicine. Although he knew that the young man must now begin to earn his living, apart

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from his summer work, he took a drastic step and strongly urged him to return to the university and to take his three-year honour Bachelor of Arts degree, in order to widen his horizon and stimulate his powers of exploration and expression. It was a difficult decision for Black to make and it was greatly to his credit that he decided to follow Macallum's advice. It would mean that when he obtained his second degree he would be four years older than most of his fellow students, and he was thus embarked on a very unusual course of action. Those who wrote of Black, in his later brilliant career, always commented on this independent choice. It is possible that Macallum saw that he was given an assistant lectureship in histology to help him financially. Black completed his course in 1909, the year in which his friend Macallum had the distinction of being made a Fellow of the Royal Society, the first graduate of the University of Toronto to receive this honour. Twentythree years later, in 1932, Macallum had the satisfaction of learning that his young protégé of many years ago had received the same honour. The only fellow student who now recalls the impression Black made on his companions during his years as a student in Medicine and later in Arts, is Dr. E. V. Cowdry who has already been quoted in the preceding chapter. In his letter of 1960 Dr. Cowdry said: "In the dim and distant past Black and I were students together, at the University of Toronto, so I knew him for quite a while very intimately; that was in 1906 when he graduated in medicine in the four-year course, while I was taking a six-year course. As he had stepped back to take a degree in Honour Arts we other students looked up to him. He was a serious quiet student and we felt he had had more practical experience of life than we had, through his summer work in the backwoods of Canada." Cowdry and Black never lost touch with each other. Although for some years their paths diverged, Cowdry was instrumental in directing Black's footsteps towards his final goal. By good fortune, a picture of Black's ways during his arts course has been recorded by Dr. W. H. Piersol, his senior by ten years, who at eighty-six years of age wrote: "Black was the only student I knew who reversed the order in which arts and medicine is usually taken. Some of his arts course he had taken in medicine and this left him

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free to do technical work for me, in which he learned the principles and manipulations used in the preparation of material for microscopic examination. This skill proved most useful in his later work. He was a terrifically hard worker and would for a period allow himself but four to five hours rest out of the twenty-four. I feel that this practice was a factor in his early death." There were times, however, when the two men laid aside their exacting scientific work to talk. Yarn after yarn would follow, chiefly about Black's experiences in his summer work. "He told me," Piersol continued, "of having kicked some pieces of black stone on the trail he was following and some years later realized it must have been pieces of ore, for that area became noted as the Gowganda silver mining district. At another time while in friendly competition with some miners Black carried a five hundred pound load of sugar on his back for one hundred yards." These three years in Arts and the association with Dr. Piersol may well have given Black a preference for academic work rather than a career outside the confines of university life. By 1909 his student days were over and he had to face the world beyond his alma mater. Whether from choice or necessity he accepted a lectureship in the department of anatomy at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Although this was not a distant post, it meant leaving his own country for at least eight months of the year and'adjusting himself to life in a republic. He was henceforth destined never to earn his living in Canada, yet it is significant that throughout his career he was always identified as Davidson Black, the Canadian. There is no contemporary record of his life during the first three years he spent at Western Reserve University. It must, however, have been a period for further exploration into the world of books. The pay was small but there is no suggestion that he was restless or dissatisfied and this was fortunate for had he not continued to serve in this post, it is possible that he might have missed the unusual sequence of opportunities that eventually led him to China. Dr. Paul H. Stevenson, one of his colleagues in Peking, has written in the Memorial Volume: "There was a logic in Black's career perhaps not easily perceived by the casual observer. Throughout his life he was always capitalizing the investments of his earlier interest and experience. During the early years he spent as much time as he could spare

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from his post in Western Reserve University in visiting and working in the laboratories of famous institutions."1 It was during those years that he spent his summer holidays doing field work with the Geological Survey of Canada. He was by this time able to do advanced work and enlarge his already considerable knowledge of the subject. Stevenson was impressed and adds : "It was here as well as in his prospecting experience that he acquired that practical knowledge of structural and stratigraphical geology that subsequently amazed the geologists with whom he worked in connection with his later paleontological studies and made it possible to direct and coordinate so satisfactorily the geological and paleontological phases of his extensive cenozoic researches in China." Dr. V. K. Ting, who played an important rôle in Black's life in China, was a director of the National Geological Survey of China and he was continually surprised at the medical man's grasp of the subject. "In certain aspects of theoretical geology, he was one of the best read men I know."2 But probably the most fruitful result of Black's study and grasp of the subject of geology was his friendship with Dr. George M. Barbour, the brilliant physiographer. They were kindred spirits and boon companions throughout their careers in China. In the knowledge of the crowded years to follow, this period in Black's life seems to have been a time of grace in which he could explore the manifold channels of his tastes. As Barbour put it in the Memorial Volume, "one was always coming across new and unexpected topics to which Black proved to have given attention at some period in the past." But his most exacting studies were in human anatomy and the gradually absorbing interest in neurology. Western Reserve University was within eight years of celebrating its fiftieth anniversary when Black took up his work there in 1909. The medical school was already famous through the activities of Dr. Carl August Hamann, head of the anatomy department. From the moment of Hamann's arrival in 1893 he devoted much of his time to building up an anatomical teaching museum, a project which was to have a great attraction for Black. Hamann was a born museum man, and from the beginning not only gathered the material he needed but 1. Memorial Volume (Peking, 1934). See Preface for reference to this volume. 2. Ibid.

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DAVIDSON BLACK, A BIOGRAPHY

himself prepared, mounted, and recorded the specimens. After years of labour and personal expense in this project it was at length acknowledged as an outstanding asset and was no longer starved of equipment and services. By the time Hamann accepted the deanship of the medical school in 1909, there had grown up a collection of about one hundred human skeletons more or less complete and catalogued to point the way to further extension. A suitable successor to Dr. Hamann had to be found for the anatomy department. This presented difficulties. There was a general feeling by many in the United States that the teaching of English anatomists stood nearer to traditions of practical medicine than did the more scientific methods that had their origin in Baltimore. Holding these views, Dr. Hamann applied to Professor Arthur Keith (at that time the most noted British anatomist) to recommend "the best young man in England." T. Wingate Todd of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Manchester was in Keith's estimation the right man for the post. Todd's decision to accept an invitation to come to Western Reserve caused a crisis in Black's life by bringing into the same orbit these two young doctors "ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises." A biographer's duty, according to Watt in his Loguick, appears simple. He says: "In writing the lives of men, which is called biography, some authors place everything in the precise order in which it occurred." It is, however, not quite such a straightforward formula, since no man lives unto himself. The biographer's task is more often to weave the lives of the many into the life of the one. Here we must go back in time to observe Todd's earlier career. Todd's work at Manchester had been observed for three years by Keith, who wrote of him: "His education and professional life depended on his own efforts." He took his degree at Manchester where his ability and energy were early rewarded by a post as demonstrator in anatomy. His kindly and unselfish nature was revealed when his chief, Professor A. W. Young, suffered a stroke, and, in order to allow the sick man to retain his salary, Todd took over Young's work as well as his own until such time as it became necessary that a new head should be appointed. The choice fell on the already famous Graf ton Elliot Smith, whose acceptance was fortunate for Todd and even more so for Black a few years hence. Smith and Todd worked together from 1909 to 1912 to reorganize the department at Manchester on more modern lines. As Professor

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J. S. B. Stopford wrote: "Elliot Smith had the vision and Todd possessed the drive and qualities necessary to put the machinery in action."3 Even more congenial to Todd was the task Smith handed him of sorting and cataloguing the large collection of skeletons which he had brought with him from the Nubian Survey of Egypt. The association of these two men came to an end when Todd accepted the offer of Western Reserve. It was a golden opportunity for a young British doctor of thirty-two. Todd promptly married and arrived in the United States at the end of 1912. The transfer from the gloomy skies of Manchester to the brisk, cold, clear atmsophere of Cleveland must have been exhilarating to the naturally energetic Todd. Not only had he stepped into the shoes of the illustrious Hamann but he had inherited the foundations of an excellent skeletal museum on which to build. This was a fortunate chance for any young anatomist and Todd being a man of action did not allow the museum to become static. An account of the vision and drive with which he tackled the enlargement of the museum has been given by one of his postgraduate students, Dr. W. Montague Cobb. In 1912, Cleveland the "Melting Pot" city, was a rapidly growing industrial community importing from abroad each year many hands, skilled and unskilled, for its myriad demands and opportunities. After a look about the place to which he had come, Dr. Todd immediately sensed the possibilities in comparative anthropology. He straightway began the most complete documentation possible of each of the unclaimed deceased whose remains came to the anatomical laboratory. . . . in the twenty-six years he was to labor at Reserve, this documented skeleton collection came to number over thirty-three thousand individuals, the basic data on most of whom had been recorded by Dr. Todd himself. No collection like this had ever been assembled anywhere in the world and probably never will be again. Here was a real treasure house for scientific investigations and generations of researchers. The assembly of this material would have by itself made a creditable career. . . . The collection of anthropoid skeletons and hides also became the largest of its kind, and in respect to gorillas and chimpanzees, can never be duplicated. Casts of all known forms of fossil man and a few ancient Egyptian and American Indian remains presented the morphology of prehistoric man.4 3. Sir Grafton Elliot Smith: A Biographical Record by his Colleagues, ed. W. R. Dawson (London, 1938). 4. Dr. W. M. Cobb graciously allowed the author to use extracts from his life of T. W. Todd in the Physical Anthropology Centennial issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (May, 1959).

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DAVIDSON BLACK, A BIOGRAPHY

In another sympathetic biography of Todd, one of his pupils, W. M. Krogman, wrote: "In his hands anatomy gained life, took on promise, held out hope. . . . It was quite natural after associating with Prof. Arthur Keith, G. Elliot Smith and F. Wood Jones that Dr. Todd should act as an interpreter of man's relation to the anthropoids and on human evolution generally. It is not far from the truth to state that men basically trained in anatomy were those who laid the foundation of physical anthropology."8 Black, already familiar with Hamann's methods, threw himself into the broader concept developed by Todd. Later in China he must have followed the same arrangement of his skeletal material. A colleague of his, Dr. A. B. D. Fortuyn, wrote to the author in 1960: "When I came to Peking Union Medical College in 1925, I was struck by the difference between the anatomical and embryological musea there which were very new and those in Leiden University which were very old but I did not trace Black's methods to Todd." Although Black's position with Western Reserve was firmly established with his appointment as Associate, he now had in Todd a young colleague with a wider range of experience. From the first they recognized each other as kindred spirits; both were full of enthusiasm for their work, yet neither was self-seeking or emulous. They were nearly the same age, though Todd had had the advantage of being on familiar footing with many of the great scientists in Europe. It is clear that Black in making plans for his future was strongly influenced by Todd in planning his studies abroad. Early in 1913 their association became closer when Black was appointed Assistant Professor in the Anatomy Department. It was during this year that he began to write for publication. His lucid style stood him in good stead and his long-established habit of recordkeeping made the task easier. His first article appeared in 1913 in the Journal of Comparative Neurology and was followed by four or five articles yearly, with the exception of 1918-19, until within a month of his death. It was said by some that his writing was always more effective than his lecturing. By 1913 Black, with a slightly more substantial income and a 5. W. M. Krogman, "Contributions of T. Wingate Todd to Anatomy and Physical Anthropology," American Journal of Physical Anthropology, XXV, 145— 86 (1959).

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fairly established position, felt that he might forego at least part of his usual hard work during vacation and pay a visit to his Delamere cousins at their summer house on Balsam Lake, northeast of Toronto. He was always a favourite with these cousins and especially welcomed by his maternal aunt, Mrs. Tom Delamere. She enjoyed his well-told tales, the expert way in which he handled his axe when replenishing her wood pile, and his knowledge of bird life and wild flowers. But what she rejoiced in most was his utter contentment in the relaxed life of her island cottage. There was always much coming and going among the friends and relations of all ages in the life of this hospitable household. This year, Davidson—or Dyo, as he was called by his family—seemed as eager to join in the fun as he had formerly been to hunt snakes. During this visit his path once again crossed that of the attractive young woman who years before had visited Go Home Bay, but this time he recognized his good fortune. Before long he had persuaded Adena Nevitt to become engaged to him and with a light heart he set out to take up his vacation job with the Geological Survey of Canada in British Columbia. Adena Nevitt was the second daughter of Dr. R. Barrington Nevitt, a man whose early career was as full of adventure as any of Henty's heroes. As a medical man he was attached to the North West Mounted Police in western Canada, where his patients included not only the three hundred officers and men of the force but any Indians on the Canadian plains, who might number from forty to fifty thousand at that time. His later domestic life and practice were spent happily, though more prosaically, in Toronto. The marriage of Davidson Black and Adena Nevitt took place at St. Luke's Church in Toronto on December 27, 1913, and, after a brief honeymoon, they returned to Cleveland. The Todds and Blacks with their backgrounds of British traditions became close friends. Both the men were untiring workers, yet they were not recluses, for they thoroughly enjoyed the social side of university life. At the beginning of the ill-omened year 1914, Black began to make preparations for a leave of absence, the first he had had since his arrival in 1909. He was on the crest of the wave, happily married to a wife as eager as he was for change and adventure. Much of the

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time was to be spent in England, the first trip there for him, though not for his wife. Quite apart from his keenness to see the land of his ancestors, he had exciting plans before him. In Canada many of his contemporaries had satisfied their early longing to travel by working their way to Europe on the numerous cattle ships that plied the Atlantic. This was before the era of cold storage and meat for England of necessity went "on the hoof." Jobs could always be found on the boats which gave free, if odoriferous trips over and pleasanter ones home, but no pay was offered. Black had never been able to take even this means of getting abroad since it had always been essential for him to augment his small income. His income was still restricted, but it was possible in 1914 to make a comfortable crossing on a small amount of money and to live reasonably in lodgings while in England. There is every reason to believe that Todd had strongly advised Black to take a short course in advanced anatomy and neurology at Manchester University under his old chief, G. Elliot Smith. Knowing both these men well by now, Todd had great hopes they would appreciate each other's ingenuous approach to life, quite apart from their equally absorbing interest in their chosen subjects. What he could not have foreseen were the fateful results of this meeting. Smith's influence on Black was profound and lasted throughout his life, and thus a short account of the older man's career here is useful. Their early years were much alike in that they both came from remote parts of the British Empire. Grafton Elliot Smith was born in Australia in 1871 and spent twenty-five years of his life there, graduating in medicine from the University of Sydney. He had an original approach to his profession, probably induced by his father who, he said, encouraged him to cultivate a universal curiosity. In 1896 he was awarded a travelling scholarship which took him to England. This soon led to his entering Cambridge as a research student in neuro-anatomy. Here he worked under the guidance of recognized leaders in science and came in contact with many able scholars, among them the late Lord Rutherford who, just prior to his death, contributed a short memoir of their friendship to Dawson's biography of Smith. In this memoir he describes Smith as a person who was shy and taciturn at first, but who later became lively,

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humorous, and the best of company when he talked on subjects which interested him. Among his associates he was recognized as "a man of outstanding ability who was sure to have a distinguished career." After only three years residence in St. John's College, instead of the usual five, he was elected to a Fellowship of the college, a somewhat rare honour as the university authorities did not always look favourably on "colonials." The mellow atmosphere of a Cambridge career was inviting and Smith was tempted to settle indefinitely into this mode of living, although he was barely thirty years old. But, with the offer of a professorship of anatomy in the Government School of Medicine at Cairo, his latent ambition was stirred and he accepted the post. He was fascinated by the gay, cosmopolitan city with its mediaeval surroundings but, a year later, he wrote to a friend: "I am busy working on the bones of prehistoric and Twelfth Dynasty people which I collected up the river." These had been sent to him by the archaeologist working with the Hearst Expedition to the Nile. This sudden excursion into anthropology had highly significant effects on the trend of his later work. In 1907 Smith became anatomical adviser to the Nubian Survey, a task which had to be carried on at the same time as his teaching in Cairo. The work was overpowering as thousands of graves were excavated after the great dam was thrown across the Nile at Aswan. He appealed to his friend, Professor Arthur Keith of the Royal College of Surgeons, to send an assistant, and he was fortunate in getting as his companion Professor F. Wood Jones. They were kindred spirits in the enterprise. Years later Wood Jones wrote of Smith: "Little by little he was taking the problem away from the pre-dynastic graves in Nubia: taking it out beyond the valley of the Nile in Nubia, past the pillars of Konosso to Egypt, and so out into the world beyond the Mediterranean and the Pillars of Hercules. . . . It was impossible to know that even then he was the genius who was to establish the vital School of Cultural Diffusionists."6 After seven exceedingly strenuous years in Egypt, Smith heard that the chair of Anatomy at Manchester was vacant and he was tempted to apply for the post, but before he had done so an invitation came to him from the Senate of Manchester and he readily accepted. The 6. Sir Graf ton Elliot Smith; see note 3, above.

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DAVIDSON BLACK, A BIOGRAPHY

change from the glare and glamour of Egypt to the smoky skies and sedate atmosphere of Manchester might have daunted a less volatile man. On Smith these elements had little effect. He had every reason to feel pleased with the appointment and lost no time in making drastic changes in equipment as well as in teaching. Fortunately Smith's "Manchester period" has been dealt with by his friend and colleague, Professor J. S. P. Stopford, F.R.S., in Dawson's book. Sadly lacking for the record is the correspondence between Elliot Smith and his research pupil, Davidson Black. Both were accomplished and fervent letter writers and as their friendship developed many sidelines on their mutual interests would have been revealed. Smith was notoriously unmethodical in keeping track of letters and even the manuscripts of his students, who soon learned to keep duplicates lest the originals disappear under the piles of papers of all descriptions that littered his rooms. It was not surprising that a recent search for letters was vain. Black, on the other hand, probably carried a neat file of Smith's letters with him to Peking, where, unfortunately, they are equally unavailable to his biographer. With the final evacuation of the Peking Union Medical College in 1949 all records had to be abandoned. "For the abler student," wrote Stopford, "Smith's lectures were an inspiration and an intellectual treat, but, I fear, many were unable to keep pace with his mental agility." Not so Black, who throve on the unconventional approach. To him, with his excellent biological background, Smith's method was an open sesame. He had already done a fair amount of original research in neurology and had every intention of enlarging his knowledge under Smith's direction. But this was not what fate had in store for him. "At that time," wrote Smith, "I was working on the reconstruction of the Piltdown Skull and the study of the endocranial cast obtained from it and, for the purposes of comparison, had collected casts of all the known fossil human skulls. This work aroused a much greater interest in Davidson Black than the brains of the Dipnoi which I was trying to persuade him to study." From then on, while in Manchester, Black threw his entire energy into a study of the array of comparative anatomical material. He went to the Manchester School of Art and acquired amazing skill in the technique of cast making. This skill was to serve him in good stead

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years later in China. In numerous anatomical museums throughout Europe and America there is evidence of his meticulous work in this art in the casts of the skull of the Peking Man. These events mark the turning point in his career and it seems possible that his contributions in the field of anthropology might never have been made had he not come under the influence of Smith. A great affection and understanding grew up between the two men, despite the difference of their age and experience, which was only terminated by Black's death, a blow keenly felt by Smith. In commenting on Black's popularity, Stopford points out that it was unusual for a "colonial" to be readily accepted by the British at that time, but Black was perhaps unaware of this, and in any circumstances was not in the habit of looking for rebuffs. The whole staff enjoyed his happy knack of getting on with his colleagues, a trait which was invaluable to him as his circle grew and his position in the scientific world became established. A poignant relic of Black's sojourn in Manchester came to light in a small bundle of his notes that were rescued from China. Attached to a printed advertisement for a professor of anatomy to fill the post in the University of Otago, New Zealand, is a note written by Elliott Smith, dated June 1914, recommending Black for the position. In a pencilled note, Black wrote: "This is a copy as I would not let the original out of my hands." Among other complimentary remarks, Smith said he was especially interested in Black's breadth of knowledge and the thoroughness and ability he displayed in conducting investigations of great difficulty and complexity; "he has a very extensive knowledge of anatomical literature and methods, not only in the narrower sense—but also in the wider sense including embryology, histology, morphology and comparative anatomy. Moreover during his stay in my department he has seized every opportunity of familiarizing himself with the problem of human phylogeny. . . . Long before I knew Dr. Black I was familiar with his excellent original researches and knew of him by good report " There is no evidence that Black made application for the post, but he obviously cherished the testimonial for many years after he no longer was in need of it. After Black's course at Manchester was completed, Elliot Smith took him to London to introduce him to some of the scientists there. To be in London for the first time was a thrilling experience for the

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young Canadian doctor and to be there as the friend and pupil of the distinguished Grafton Elliot Smith meant that he met the leading men in his own subject under the most favourable auspices. At the Royal College of Surgeons Professor Arthur Keith was his host and quickly became his friend. For years they kept up a regular correspondence. Long after Black's death, Keith wrote of his young friend: "He had a brain that moved easily and truly and he was blessed with a sunny, friendly temperament." It was also natural that Elliot Smith should have brought about a meeting between his old colleague of Egyptian days, Frederick Wood Jones, and Davidson Black. In the years to come in Peking, Black and Jones kept up a lively correspondence. Arthur Smith Woodward (1864-1944) was another well-known man whom Black met on this visit. He was Keeper of Geology in the British Museum, South Kensington. It was after this meeting with Woodward in 1914 that Smith and Black decided to make an expedition to the scene of the find of the famous Piltdown skull in the outskirts of the village of Piltdown, near Brighton in Sussex. Years of controversial discussions and heated arguments had followed this discovery, involving most of the reputable anthropologists, palaeontologists and geologists in Europe. The main actor in this drama, until his death in 1916, was Charles Dawson, a respected solicitor who lived in the vicinity. From 1908 Dawson had been collecting the fragments of fossilized bone which were being thrown up by roadmakers near Piltdown. According to his account he found in a gravel pit parts of a petrified skull and by 1911 had collected enough to convince himself that these were the remains.of a primitive human being. In 1912 he took his collection of fossils to the Keeper of the Department of Geology in the South Kensington Museum, Arthur Smith Woodward, who declared that they belonged to the Tertiary period. Later the two men examined the pits together and there found other pieces of a skull which seemed to be part of the original find, and later a simian-like jawbone with a few teeth. The exitement caused by these finds was great. Even the newspapers began to take up the cry that "Dawn Man," or as Woodward called it, "Eoanthropus dawsoni," had been found in the south of England. The scientists, however, disagreed among themselves as to how a simian jawbone could be made to fit with an ob-

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viously human skull. No one however, at that time, suspected that Dawson's finds were anything but genuine fossils. The discussion was still at its height when Smith brought Black down to the gravel pits in 1914. Casts of the bone fragments had already been made and distributed so it is possible that Black had examined them while at Manchester. If the fossil pieces puzzled the learned, it was not likely that he could throw any light on them. He did, however, question their environment. Through his study of geology he rejected the idea that ancient man could have lived in this place, and so fell back on the assumption that the bones had been washed up by the tide. Among the curious who visited the site at Piltdown was a young Jesuit priest with pronounced archaeological leanings, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. He had been sent by his order to Brighton and was quickly drawn into the search for further evidence that might throw light on the problem. He discovered a semi-human canine and flints which might be tools. Teilhard was too young at the time for his opinion to be taken seriously, but he was fated to become famous as one of those who took an active part in the archaeological research in China. As time went on the scientists' ranks became divided. One group followed Arthur Keith in the belief that a new branch of the human family had been discovered. Others, perhaps the majority, were unconvinced, although no one at this time doubted that a creature possessing this skull and jawbone had actually existed. By 1916 Charles Dawson was dead, and his name still graced the glass case in which the British Museum displayed the "human monstrosity." Scientists continued to examine the fossils, experts such as Hans Weinert and J. H. McGregor. Elliot Smith was perhaps the most vigorously engaged in writing articles on the subject. Between 1913 and 1918 the Piltdown skull appears six times in his bibliography. Gradually the excitement died down until the celebrated Marcellin Boule, one of the most eminent anthropologists of the day, renewed interest in the subject by declaring that the problematical bones belonged to a much later period than the Tertiary and that he placed them in the middle Pleistocene epoch. The matter lapsed uneasily for some time. Gradually the dubious words "planted" and "treated"

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were applied when the subject came up in discussions. Nevertheless, up to 1948, Piltdown Man appeared in the lists of early man in numerous works on anthropology, although more and more frequently the name was followed by a question mark. In the last decade, as modern methods of research came into use, the skull has been ranked as recent man and the jaw as definitely simian. Whether or not Charles Dawson's name will ever be freed from the charge of fraudulent practice remains a moot question.7 The controversy had stretched over forty-two years and had a most sinister effect on the reports of genuine discoveries. In the light of present-day knowledge the only merit it served was to lead one young anatomist to further investigate "the darkness that lies behind us." The visit to London was momentous and fruitful, and the results speak well for the impression the young, unknown Canadian anatomist made on those who met him. On their return to Manchester Elliot Smith seems to have had some qualms of conscience when Black declared that he was determined to devote his life to the search for the primates. To lure him back to the study of neurology he encouraged Black to follow his original intention to work under Dr. Ariens Kappers, head of the Central Dutch Institute of Brain Research in Amsterdam. There were several European academies at that time co-operating in maintaining a chain of such institutes, and it is likely that Elliot Smith had some connection with the one in Holland. It was, therefore, with keen anticipation that Black enrolled in the centre in Amsterdam as a research student. Although he had been carried away so completely by the prospect of some day devoting his life to the search for the primates, he was thoroughly at home in the neurological field and was able to appreciate the work and teachings of his new-found and brilliant friend. Ominous as the political situation was in the early months of the summer of 1914, the Blacks crossed the narrow seas to Holland apparently undismayed, as were many other travellers intent on pleasure; Black himself was intent on the opportunity to work under the guidance of the distinguished neurologist. The meeting with Dr. 7. A chapter on "Piltdown Man, his Rise and Fall" appears in Mankind in the Making by William Howells (New York, 1959). This is one o£ the most up-todate accounts of that long and involved controversy.

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Kappers was another instance of Black's extraordinary capacity to form instant and long-lasting friendships with those he admired. Although their time together was short, they spoke the scientific language, and an intimate relationship grew up between them and remained through the troubled years ahead. This meant much to both of them, perhaps especially to Kappers. The Blacks made friends in Holland and remained there even after the declaration of war on August 4th. The fact that the country was not involved may have lulled their fears, otherwise it seems strange that they did not make an earlier move to return to England. By the end of the first week of war they decided to replenish their funds for their return trip by cashing a cheque at the bank in Amsterdam. What was their dismay when the manager refused to give them any money! It then occurred to Mrs. Black that she had deposited her mother's gift of three hundred dollars in gold (to be spent on a silver teapot) in the bank for safe keeping. This she demanded since it could not be considered Dutch money. The manager hesitated. He had had his orders and he seemed adamant. Then suddenly he slipped the gold coins into her hand, telling the Blacks to depart by a side door and to remain silent about the transaction. Thus ended the Blacks' sojourn in Europe. They sailed for America in a darkened liner with the mighty German fleet at large in the Atlantic and arrived in Quebec to find that Canada had declared war and was in the throes of mobilizing for her first major war in a hundred years. On arrival in Toronto Black immediately offered his services to the Army, but he was not accepted. He wrote to his friend Kappers: "I have a slight heart murmur, which I have had all my life, but it in no way affects my health. However, it makes me unacceptable for service so I must return to my post at Western Reserve." In spite of the grim fact of the war, the reunion with friends and relatives was refreshing after their six months sojourn among strangers.

CHAPTER

THREE

The First World War

AFTER Black's experience abroad a change was evident in his thinking and his writing. In spite of the heavy routine as Assistant Professor at Western Reserve in the Anatomy Department, he took time by December 1914 to put his thoughts into print by contributing a paper to the Experimental Medicine Section of the Academy of Medicine in Cleveland. In the article headed "Brain in Primitive Man" (^Cleveland Medical Journal, March 1915), the first sentence gives the keynote to his thinking from this date: "All evidence of man's antiquity and of his primitive structure and civilization depends upon the natural preservation in geological strata of known age, of certain hard parts of the skeleton and teeth and of certain stone implements of human structure." The subject of neurology, though by no means abandoned, was gradually giving way to the problem of tracing the genus back to primitive man. With this in mind he began to explore for his own satisfaction and with his usual thoroughness the related subject of palaeontology. By Christmas 1914 it was evident that the war would not be a short one, however fierce the fighting, and, as there was no sign of the United States joining the Allies, there seemed little chance now of Black's release from the groove in which his life had run since his appointment at Western Reserve. Until the war was over all plans were at a standstill. Fortunately for Black, his wife had made their small apartment a home-like retreat where he could entertain his friends at simple

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dinners and spend the evenings in long discussions, or where he could bury himself in thought and study without fear of interruption. Mrs. Black was a good typist and from the first undertook all his clerical work on manuscripts, lectures and correspondence. And so Black took up again "the daily round, the common task" with little hope of startling change. But once again the tenor of his life was radically changed. This time the way was opened by means of the printed word. If books could be articulate and boast of the lives they influence, what a curious array would be heard from! Perhaps it would be safe to say that books rather than persons have been responsible for most of the great achievements of modern man. As Francis Bacon declared in his Advancement of Learning: "the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in books . . . because they generate still and cast their seeds into the minds of others, provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding generations." Early in 1915 a book appeared called Climate and Evolution, written by William Diller Matthew, which was to have a far-reaching influence on the future of Davidson Black. The deductions advanced by Matthew aroused and quickened Black's natural curiosity and led him eventually, with very little deviation, to the remote Chinese caves of Chou-K'ou-tien and to the identification of Sinanthro'pus pekinensis. By a strange coincidence the author was a fellow countryman of Black's. He was the son of George F. Matthew of New Brunswick, an amateur geologist in the best sense of the word and one of the small band of Canadian geologists and palaeontologists who worked with Sir William Dawson in the Maritime Provinces. William Matthew was born in 1871 and brought up, as was Black, with spartan frugality. He had the advantage of youthful association with scientifically minded men and early made a name for himself as an original thinker. When he entered the Department of Geology at Columbia University in 1894 he was described as an apple-cheeked Canadian youth from New Brunswick. The post led to his appointment to take charge of an immense collection of fossils amassed by Professor E. A. Cope and purchased by the American Museum of Natural History. These had to be classified and catalogued. It was, therefore, a long and exacting piece of work, but proved a veritable open door into a realm of infinite possibilities for the young man. He became an expert

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in identifying tens of thousands of fossils, especially those of mammals. This experience led him to the conclusions which he brought forward in his book Climate and Evolution. Writing of this book after Matthew's death, in the Preface to the second edition, Dr. W. R. Gregory said: "Owing to the great scarcity of fossil mammals, except in a very few museums, great discoveries concerning the evolution of mammals were known at first only to a few of his immediate colleagues and to a very few specialists scattered throughout the world, which for the most part is impervious to palaeontological science." The profound influence the book had on Black was acknowledged by him in the article he published in 1925 called: "Asia and the Dispersal of the Primates—A Study in Ancient Geography of Asia and its Bearing on the Ancestry of Man." In the Introduction he says: On the significance of the distribution of both land and marine animals past and present much has been written and many different views have been held and ably defended by their various exponents in the past. With particular reference to the history and dispersal of mammals the most conservative as well as constructive discussion which has yet appeared came in the opening year of the present decade with the publication of Matthew's masterly treatise on "Climate and Evolution." In this work the author has assembled an overwhelming mass of positive evidence in support of his thesis which in view of its clarity, importance and brevity may well be quoted here in full. After this short statement of his own on the subject he gives Matthew's five principal points of argument: 1. Secular climatic change has been an important factor in the evolution of land vertebrates and the principal known cause of their present distribution. 2. The principal lines of migration in later geological epochs have been radial from Holarctic centres of dispersal (in other words, outward from regions relatively near the North Pole, or "top" of the world). 3. The geographic changes required to explain the present distribution of land vertebrates are not extensive and for the most part do not affect the permanence of the oceans as defined by the continental shelf. 4. The theories of alternations of moist and uniform with arid and zonal climates, as elaborated by Chamberlain, are in exact accord with the course of evolution of land vertebrates, when interpreted with due allowance for the probable gaps in the record.

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5. The numerous hypothetical land bridges in temperate, tropical and southern regions, connecting continents now separated by deep oceans, which have been advanced by various authors, are improbable and unnecessary to explain geographic distribution. On the contrary the known facts point distinctly to a general permanency of continental outlines during the later epochs of geologic time, provided that due allowance be made for the known or probable gaps in our knowledge. This theory expanded extensively by Matthew in his book led Black to consider that Asia was of major strategic importance in any consideration of the dispersal of land mammals. Black made no secret of the inspiration that came to him through reading Matthew's book. It was the turning point in his life. This period was later described in the Memorial Volume by one of his intimate friends, Paul Huston Stevenson, with great sympathy and insight: Under the spell of the tremendous fascination of that problem was born the greatest of the several personages of Davidson Black, namely Davidson Black, the Anthropologist. Here was the call from the unknown for which his restless spirit had been waiting; a call that came as a challenge and an opportunity; one of those rare opportunities that come only to the prepared. There can be no doubt that from this time on the problem of the origin and early evolution of man occupied first place in Black's mind. Immediately the scattered rays of previous interests came to a clear focus on this fascinating subject. He recognized at once that here was an opportunity for full investment of his unique capital in life; his inherent love of adventure, his instinct for discovery, even more his practical geological experience and perspective and his extensive knowledge of comparative anatomy in particular. All his previous interests and experiences immediately fell into their self-appointed places in this broad foundation of correlated qualifications that guided his approach to the new problem now uppermost in his mind. It is quite possible that Black's inquisitive mind did not accept all the theories evolved by Matthew, but the fact that the author had spent his entire scientific life amid these most compelling evidences of evolution could not fail to impress the young Canadian anatomist. He lost no time in meeting him and they became fast friends. From this period the longing to explore China and other regions of Asia was uppermost in Black's thoughts. He even studied the remote possibility of some day making an expedition there in order to satisfy himself that Matthew's theory was correct—that the seat of man's origin lay there.

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But, in the meantime, the war still raged. Until that problem was solved, together with the vexatious fact of his own limited means, a great barrier existed which he could see no hope of surmounting. The critical and sombre year of 1915 was spent by Black between Cleveland and his home in Canada. It was a period of anxiety and waiting but it gave him time to develop the new theories acquired during his sojourn in England and his experience in meeting such men in the United States as Dr. W. K. Gregory, of the American Museum of Natural History, William Matthew and Dr. Ales Hrdlicka of the Smithsonian Institution. It is through a series of frank and warmly affectionate letters to his teacher and friend, Dr. Kappers of Amsterdam, that much of Black's life at this time is revealed. We owe the existence of these letters to the deep regard Dr. Kappers had for his young Canadian friend. They remained unharmed in the files of the Institute of Brain Research through two wars, and were discovered in 1959 by Dr. A. B. Droogleever Fortuyn when he undertook the search for firsthand records of his friend Black in order to assist the writer of this biography. The bond of interest between Kappers and Black was, of course, the study of neurology and the letters naturally contain a good deal of reference to problems on this subject. These discussions have been omitted in the following letters. Much, however, remains to show the stresses the war laid on the lives of scientific men in America and Europe. DEAR DR. KAPPERS:

TORONTO, August llth, 1915

It was just about a year ago that we had to make our hurried exit from your most delightful country—it really seems centuries ago in some ways. I shall give you some of the news in this letter and try to keep up our correspondence. In May I was offered the Chair of Anatomy at the State College of Medicine at Charleston, South Carolina. I went down there and looked things over carefully and decided not to accept though it was a temptation as they had offered $3500 and the place would have been delightful to live in. Since then the University of Oregon has offered the Chair of Anatomy to me but I refused. Just of late the Hunan-Yale College at Changsha, China, have been asking me if I cared to take charge of the anatomy out

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there. I have not decided yet but from an anthropological point of view, if my material is abundant, it would have been a most attractive proposition. I do not know what I will do however. My wife and I have just come back from a very pleasant two-weeks visit to Dr. L. F. Barker's place in the Georgian Bay [Madawaska Club]. Dr. C. J. Herrich was up there staying with Professor B. A. Bensley on another island and we had some good talks. We wished you had been there. You would have known most of the men by reputation. It's a great place to meet university men and some day you will visit us there when we have a summer place of our own. I have translated all your papers which you wrote in German on Neurobiotaxis because I can remember better that way. . . . It is very hard to work when all one's friends are fighting . . . if the war lasts till the spring I shall go into the Naval Aviation Corps . . . just now they have plenty of men but they will need them next year. The reason I finished the endocranial cast papers first was just because Professor Osborn and Dr. Matthew of the American Museum of Natural History have been kind enough to put all their Tertiary and recent endocranial casts at my disposal for study and I wanted to clinch agreement and show I was keenly interested in the subject by publishing the paper on the Okapi at once. It is terrible to think that at a time when there is so much work to be done that one has to think of fighting. . . .

Black was by this time making a name for himself in academic circles. Since his return from abroad at least three offers of new posts had come to him. The salary at Charleston sounds meagre in 1963, but it was a substantial advance on the one he had been living on in Cleveland of $1,500. To take the journey to South Carolina he once more borrowed his wife's three hundred dollars which had been so essential in their escape from the Netherlands. On his return he had to confess that he had spent her money and had nothing to show for it, since he had refused the offered position. Perhaps he felt the post would have proved a cul-de-sac. On other occasions throughout his life a visit to his haunts at Go Home Bay restored him in mind and body. The Biological Station was now closed, never to be reopened, but the roomy cottage of Dr. L. F. Barker of Johns Hopkins Hospital was always open to him. Here medical men were wont to gather for fishing and congenial discussions. In June 1916 Black wrote twice to Kappers on various subjects of mutual interest, among them the publication of Kappers' own book, and the interesting connection that was growing between himself and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

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CLEVELAND, June 7th, 1916 I was indeed glad to receive a letter from you today—one which was written on April 27th and which has been all this time on the way. . . . I am only too glad to do anything I can to further the study neurobiotaxis in America for it is a very great privilege for me to be able to help in any way. My work with you and with Professor Elliot Smith in the short time I was in Europe is worth more than untold gold to me. . . . I am anxious to know whether you are intending to publish an English edition of your coming book. I am very interested in this because if only in German there will not be as extensive a sale in this country or in Canada. . . . I would be very glad to help in any way I can to arrange an American edition.1 The war seems to grow more terrible every day and I do not know yet whether my services will be required. How I wish it were successfully over and German militarism over and done with. I could turn to my work with a free mind and fresh energy. In May of 1916, Dr. Kappers wrote to Black explaining the reason why he had not written for many months. He said he had been in a depressed state of mind, which he had only been able to "repulse" in the last month. "It seemed," he said, "as if the whole world was wrapped in clothes of misery which never disappear. All sorts of unhappy 'fluids' influence our minds here." Now he hoped there could be an English translation of his book on which he had been working for so long. This letter took three months to reach Black. He at once set to work to explore ways to have Professor Kappers' book published in the United States or in England and, in his reply later that year, offered to have it translated by a Dutch student and to put it into good English himself. It was characteristic of Black to put aside his own pressing work and to take on arduous labours for his friends. While he did not dwell on Kappers' depressed state of mind, he gave him much to think of about the publication of his book in the hope that this would raise his spirits. He ends his letter with a note of sympathy: "I cannot say how deeply I feel for your poor country— you are indeed in the valley of tribulation." CLEVELAND, October 21st, 1916 It is now a long time since I sent you a copy of the first few pages of my paper. I have done practically no work since the beginning of August as I had 1. Ariens Kappers, G. C. Huber, and Elizabeth Car Crosby, The Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System of the Vertebrates including Man, 2 vols. (New York, 1936).

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to take a holiday. The heat here in the summer was very great and both my wife and I had to take a rest as we were pretty well run down, so we went to the Georgian Bay and visited Dr. L. F. Barker. In September came the terrible news of the loss of my wife's youngest brother in the Somme fighting. He has been reported missing "thought killed in action." There is only a slight hope that he may be a prisoner of war. My brother has gone to the front and I am the only male on either side of the family that is not "doing his bit." I offered my services but was not up to physical standards. I am back here at work teaching again and taking up my work on Neurobiotaxis where I left it in August. . . . The American Museum of Natural History has turned over to me the valuable material which Lang collected in his Congo expedition in 1913-15. They want me to edit a monograph on these animals and I expect to do the work on the nervous system while Professors Todd and Ingalla will share with me the work on the other organs systems.

After this letter to Kappers communication with Europe became more and more difficult, although it was never completely cut off as it was in the Second World War. There seemed little chance that either Black or Todd would ever return to practise their professions in the countries of their birth, yet each resolutely refused to consider giving up his original citizenship. This made the war years doubly hard for them in Cleveland, but in the early months of 1917 it was evident that the United States would soon declare war on Germany and the well-nigh exhausted British and French could look for some support. On April 2nd the declaration came, and Todd and Black felt they could now ask to be relieved of their posts. Black returned to Toronto and once more presented himself for military service and this time, at his earnest insistence, he was accepted and given the rank of captain in the Army Medical Corps. He was posted to a Canadian Army Military hospital where meningitis was raging. The work was hard and possibly uncongenial since he had spent his entire professional life in research and teaching. Yet the relief to an ardent Canadian to be at last taking his part must have been great. The quickest way for Todd to enlist was to come to Canada. This he did and with the rank of Captain served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps, in charge of surgery at the Base Hospital in London, Ontario, and overseas as consultant at Kinmel Park Camp in Wales.

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It was the parting of the ways for the two friends. They were to meet in future only on the rare occasions when Black's later journeys brought him to the United States. In the spring of 1918 Black expected to be transferred to service in England. The Canadian hospitals there were taxed to the limit by the tremendous stream of casualties from the western front. The United States army was now getting into the fight and weight of numbers of fresh troops was beginning to tell. The Canadian casualties still remained high and in the end were greater than those of the United States. But even in the midst of war, Black's future was taking shape without any effort on his part. Dr. E. V. Cowdry, the friend of his student days at the University of Toronto, was now on the staff of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The two men had kept up an intermittent correspondence and had sometimes met. On the eve of Black's departure for overseas, he received an excited letter from Cowdry to say that he had accepted an appointment at the newly established Peking Union Medical College, as head of the Anatomy Department, and had suggested- to the Director, Dr. Simon Flexner, that he, Black, would be an excellent choice as his assistant, if his release from military service could be arranged. The prospect of an appointment to work in this recently established medical college in the one country he h'ad set his heart on was unbelievable good fortune. But Black had no intention of asking for his release as long as he was needed. He talked over the prospect with his commanding officer and permission was granted to him to go to New York to have an interview with Dr. Flexner of the Rockefeller Foundation, which was financing the new Medical College. Dr. Cowdry wrote in 1960, forty-two years after the event, "Dr. Simon Flexner was in favour of Black's appointment, because, he said, it was important for each of us to keep out of each other's way! Black had ambitions in anthropology and seldom used a microscope, while I was looking through one at cells most of the time. When Black was finally demobilized and we worked together in Peking, we got on famously." The meeting of the two friends in New York was a joyous affair

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after the grim months and years of war. Black was no longer the "serious quiet student" Cowdry had known in 1908, but a confident, amusing, and even sociable man. The Rockefeller Foundation generously made Black's appointment to date from June 1918. Cowdry left for his post in Peking and Black, on his return to Toronto, was posted to Whitley Camp in Surrey, England. To see England after four years of war was a heart-breaking experience for Black. Scattered was the congenial group of scientists who had made life so stimulating during his six months of study in 1914. But as the months of late summer and early autumn passed his optimism returned and he felt he could now look into the future and make plans. However, it was not until the eve of the armistice that he was able to write a long and cheerful letter to his friend Dr. Kappers of the Brain Institute of Amsterdam, so near and yet still so inaccessible. In this letter the present fades and the future looms bright and full of promise. November 8th, 1918 ON ACTTVE SERVICE It seems years since I wrote to you last—and indeed it is nearly a year. But I have thought of you many times and wondered how your book is getting on and whether you are going to get out an English edition— I sincerely hope you will be able to do so, as it will materially increase its influence and its sale. I do not know whether I told you about my resignation from Western Reserve University and my appointment to the professorship of Neurology and Embryology at Peking Union Medical College in China. I shall chance repeating myself and give you the details. You no doubt have heard all about the new medical school in Peking which has been established by the Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Vincent Cowdry, one of my close personal friends, is out there now—he is professor and head of the anatomy department. The China Medical Board of the Rockefeller Foundation was most considerate and made my appointment from last June on the understanding that I should not take up my new duties until the termination of military work. The new school buildings are the best and most modern and expense has not been spared in order to make the working conditions most favourable. The library will be complete of its kind and will be biological in scope, so that Peking should shortly become the medical and biological centre of the East. We will also be able to accommodate any visitors wishing to carry on research after the war. I shall have charge also of the work in physical anthropology and of

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the museum in connection with the anatomical department. The American Museum of Natural History, through Professor Osborn and Dr. Matthew, have kindly consented to furnish us with a large collection of their duplicates of palaeontological and anatomical material. Dr. Hrdlicka of Washington and the Wistar Institute of Philadelphia are also much interested in our project and will help in every way they can, so the museum should have a good start to begin with. In addition to my work at the school, I shall have the privilege of accompanying such scientific expeditions as may be organized to explore and collect material in central China, Tibet etc., so I should have an excellent chance to collect much rare material. The Board has also built a large number of residences for members of the faculty and their wives and we have selected a house from the blue prints. The house will not be furnished, however, before the autumn of 1919 so if we go out before that we shall have to live at an hotel. 'Tis a wonderful prospect to look forward to, is it not? I have been over here for five months but have not had a chance to get to France, and from the glorious news of our progress it really begins to look as if we might have peace in the comparatively near future, so I doubt that I shall get there at all. If peace really comes I am going to try to get leave to visit you for a day or so before I go back to Canada. I want to talk about your book and museum material and about neurobiotaxis and a thousand and one things connected with my new work in China. I have not seen Professor Elliot Smith or Professor Keith either since I came over but I have had letters from both. I have also heard that Professor Todd has arrived from Canada. I am very keen to get to work on reptiles, birds and mammals. I also have material ready for a paper on human endocranial anatomy and one on endocranial casts of certain Tertiary carnivores, but there is much work to be done on these. I hear Dr. Todd's book on teeth is out. It should be good. But now I must stop, as you will be getting tired of all this gossip. With cordial regards. . . . The appointment to the staff of this unique medical school was the challenge for which Black had been ready for some time. He had chosen a career as a teacher and now felt confident that he had much to offer his pupils. In China there was, of course, the disadvantage of isolation from the main centres of Western thought and practice but this might well be offset by the opportunity of working with doctors of wide experience from many countries. The yearround residence in northern China with its extremes of cold and heat would weigh lightly against the prospect of being one of the first

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physical anthropologists to investigate, in his spare time, the prehistory of China in its caves and river beds. Now that fighting had come to an end Black felt he could indulge freely in making elaborate plans for his new life although it might be many weary months before his release came. He was now a staff member, though half a world away, of a medical college in the Far East about which very little is known. Even up to the present no printed account of the College has appeared except in one chapter of The Story of the Rockefeller Foundation by R. B. Fosdick (1952). Yet the history of the Peking Union Medical College is unique in the annals of medical schools, and the achievements of the College were numerous. The most unpremeditated and perhaps the most widely known was the successful scientific research work into Chinese prehistory which was brought about by Davidson Black and his staff in the Department of Anatomy during the years 1919 to 1934. Many publications recount the results of this prehistoric research, but very little space is devoted to the history of the College itself. The establishment of such a medical school was a most unusual experiment, financed with the utmost generosity and dedicated to the highest ideals. It grew and accomplished much in spite of the very unfavourable political conditions in China during the whole period of its existence. The idea of establishing a medical school in China goes back to 1908 when John D. Rockefeller, Jr., financed an Oriental Education Commission suggested by the University of Chicago. In 1914 a commission was sent to China to study and report on conditions there in public health and medicine. Up to this time the scattered and ill-financed missionary societies had made valiant attempts to teach and practise modern medicine. The Rockefeller Foundation now proposed to cooperate with these mission schools and to establish a medical college in Peking in connection with the Union Medical College of the London Missionary Society and six other mission schools. To accomplish this change the China Medical Board of the Rockefeller Foundation was established in New York in November 1914. The next year the existing buildings of the London Missionary Society were purchased and the name became the Peking Union Medical College. More buildings were erected and the staff was enlarged as the number of pupils increased. The College consisted of a pre-medical

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school (until 1925), a medical school, a hospital and a nursing school. The highest practical standards of teaching and practice were to be maintained and the teaching was to be done in English for some time at least. The students were all to be Chinese, with the proviso that they understood English. Eventually it was hoped there would be a Chinese faculty and later a Chinese board of directors and that the College would become the chief training centre for Chinese doctors and nurses. From the first, with this end in view, there were some Chinese doctors on the staff. When the new college was completed and equipped with instruments and a library, it was considered one of the finest medical schools in the world. The board had spent $9,500,000 on it and between 1921 and 1928 the operating budget was nearly $8,500,000. In 1928 a change took place in the parent organization in New York. It was no longer called the China Medical Board of the Rockefeller Foundation but became the China Medical Board Incorporated. To this now separate organization the Rockefeller Foundation transferred the ownership of the Peking Union Medical College with its lands and buildings and the sum of $12,000,000 the income of which was to be used at the discretion of the China Medical Board Incorporated. In other words, the Rockefeller Foundation withdrew, with the generous proviso that additional contributions would be available for five years and, if necessary, for another five. This arrangement was made in the hope that other sources of income might be found, perhaps in China itself, if it was known that it was no longer a branch of the Rockefeller Foundation. No outside sources were ever found in China, which is, perhaps, not surprising. By 1935 the growing menace of the Japanese occupation aroused the nationalist feelings of the Chinese and tended to make them distrust the foreign element in their institutions. By 1937 they had eliminated from the College all but three of the teachers who had previously held posts outside the country, leaving on the staff only Dr. Van Dyke, Dr. Hoeppi and Dr. Fortuyn. Perhaps the least restricted period of the work of the Peking Union Medical College was from 1916 to 1930, though at no time was there any feeling of certainty how long such conditions would prevail. In December, 1941, the College fell into the hands of the Japanese, who had been, of course, already established in much of eastern

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China since 1937. On the day of Pearl Harbor, the Director of the College, Dr. H. S. Houghton, the Controller, Mr. T. Bowen, and Dr. Snapper, the Professor of Medicine, were imprisoned by the Japanese; Dr. Matsuhashi, a Japanese medical officer who had been in Peking since 1937, took charge of the College. Teaching continued for six weeks. When it stopped by order of the Japanese, none of the Chinese staff members was allowed to work and the whole College was overrun by Japanese soldiers. With the end of the war in 1945, the College was returned to its rightful owners and the task of rehabilitation began. Supplies and equipment had disappeared, although the records and library fortunately remained intact. In 1946, undiscouraged it would seem by the highly disturbed political condition of the country, a commission from the United States visited the College and on its report the Rockefeller Foundation gave a final capital grant of $10,000,000 with the hope that "the light which it started [in China] in modern medicine would not be allowed to die out." Work was resumed on a small scale but in December, 1948, with the threatened approach of the Communists, it was evident that the end was in sight. Early in 1949 Peking fell to the Communists and in 1950 all United States funds for China were again frozen as they had been in 1941. Up to the time the College was actually taken over there had been no interference. Since 1951 no communication has passed between the College and the Board in New York. This gives only a bare outline of the history of the College, but it should be known that the contribution to this noble cause by the Rockefeller Foundation amounted to $45,000,000, the largest grant ever made up to that time to a single cause outside the United States of America in the history of this organization. Nor does this take into account the time, effort and thought expended on the enterprise by a host of unselfish men and women during the forty-six years of its existence.

CHAPTER FOUR

Peking Union Medical College

DEMOBILIZATION was a long and complicated process. It was said that after the Armistice it would take three years to return the Canadian troops to their homeland. This happily was an exaggerated estimate; nevertheless there were still thousands of Canadian hospital cases, and the prospect was slim for Davidson Black, a later comer, to be demobilized. By February 1919, urgent letters had come to the Surgeon-General of Canada from the Rockefeller Foundation, asking for Captain Black's release from the Canadian General Laboratory at Whitley Camp. "He is much needed in Peking," wrote the President, "to take up his work as Professor of Neurology and Embryology at the College." This appeal and one by Sir William Osier were successful and in March he sailed for Canada with his discharge accomplished. One of his first tasks was to visit his friends, Matthew and Osborn, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York to discuss with them the setting up and stocking of an anatomy museum in Peking. The result was highly satisfactory and he reported to the Board in New York that the specimens of mammalian osteological material being presented by the Museum were ready for packing and needed only shipping instructions. At home in Toronto there was much to be arranged as the date of departure in August drew near. This was to be a long farewell since leave of absence would not come for four years. Although keenly aware of his good fortune, he could not help

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pondering his voyage: for no narrow frith He had to cross. The Blacks sailed from San Francisco on the S.S. Ecuador. On board they met a number of capable and highly trained nurses whose destination was the hospital and training school of the now nearly completed Peking Union Medical College. It was not a propitious time to arrive in China, but this might have been said with equal truth before or after August 1919. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28th of that year and, although China was one of the Allies, her voice was scarcely heard at the meeting. More insulting still, German rights in Shantung were all transferred to China's rapacious neighbour, Japan. When this news reached China, a fierce wave of nationalism swept through the country. Indignant student meetings were held and strikes were organized. High officials who had accepted these terms fled from the country, Japanese goods were burned in the streets, and for some time the government ceased to function. These conditions, which might well stir feelings of insecurity in the layman's breast, failed to daunt the doctors and nurses on board the Ecuador. They had lately worked through a major war and could take political upheaveal in their stride. On arrival at Peking early in the day, the Blacks were met by officials of the Peking Union Medical College and by their old friends, Dr. and Mrs. Cowdry. The excitement of at last being in China was soon dampened by the sight of their own house. It was as yet a mere shell, without doors or window frames and devoid of the basic furniture which they had expected to be in place. The Cowdrys, however, quickly whisked them away to spend the day with them. They inspected the College and hospital and found the fifty-nine buildings in the twenty-five acre compound almost completed. The first sight of the group was breath-taking, with the many high gracefully curved Chinese roofs of jade green glazed tiles—made in the factory that once supplied the imperial palaces. In sharp contrast were the walls of grey brick, much like that in the Great Wall. Around the eaves were characteristic Chinese decorations, painted by native artisans. The whole aspect was strikingly different from the sombre appearance of most medical schools in the Western world. During the day Mrs. Black had the novel experience of choosing

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"boys" for their staff from a number who presented themselves. After dinner, the Cowdrys suggested that the Blacks might like to return to their own house. What was their astonishment to find that the doors and windows were now in place and a polite and spotless "Number One Boy" was there to greet them and to usher them into their sparsely though adequately furnished home! Their beds were made and tea was served before they retired to spend their first night in Peking. The site of Peking, the great and beautiful Imperial City, has a long and involved history, but it only became a metropolis under the rule of the Liaos or Khitan Tartars, during the years A. D. 915 to 1125, when the old city was demolished and a larger one built. It is said that each time it was destroyed, a more splendid city arose from the ashes. To choose among the writers who have described it would be difficult, had it not been done with great vividness and fitting emphasis by a man who was to play a most important part in the life of the newly arrived anatomy professor. This was John Gunnar Andersson who had come to China from Sweden in 1914 to take up his work as mining adviser to the Chinese government. In 1934 he published his book, the English edition of which bears the happy title Children of the Yellow Earth: Studies in Prehistoric China. Andersson had the rare gift of combining deep learning with charm and lucidity in his writing. There are few books on geology and palaeontology that may be read by the layman with so much enjoyment. Andersson describes Peking and its surroundings as Black saw it in 1919: No visitor to Peking can have neglected to take an evening walk along the town wall above the Wagons Lits Hotel. He will certainly remember how beyond Shui Men, the Water Gate, there runs a broad, rather steep road up to the summit of the mighty wall. We are now standing on the broad tiled footpath which runs between the two great gates of the neighbouring Chien Men, in the west, and remote Hata Men, far away in the east. Up here the noise of the streets comes to us only as a distant hum; only an occasional puff of its dust comes to us, and the thousand odours of the city lie below in the depths. Peking lies beneath us like an immense park, with the yellow glazed roofs of the imperial palaces embedded in green, and down to the south the blue-violet top-hat of the Temple of Heaven rises up above the panorama of the city. But far away to the west the horizon is formed by a blue mountain range. The almost complete absence of river or lake in Peking is very agreeably compensated by the presence of this mountain frame, the Western Hills, which lie at a convenient distance for excursions of a day or more.

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The imperial city itself lies on a plain which is only about 50 metres above the sea level. This semi-circular plain is a depression within which the rocks have sunk along great fault lines into the depths and have subsequently been overlaid by deposits, during the Tertiary and subsequent periods, of clay, gravel and the peculiar fine dust, brought by the wind, which the learned call loess. On this loose earth the capital city was built. But, as has been said, around this great depression rise the Western Hills, with peaks reaching to 1,500 metres in height. . . . This outer ring of the Western Hills is known to everybody who has sojourned in Peking. But what lies within the mountain ranges has been seen only by a few foreigners.

These same mysterious hills became the focus of Black and his research workers in the years ahead. Black's activities within the College during the first months of his life in Peking can be traced by his own effortless pen in a letter of December 5, 1919, to his friend Professor F. Wood Jones, who after the war had gone to the University of Southern Australia. By this time, Jones's book The Problem of Man's Ancestry had made a stir with its theories on the Indonesian dwarf lemur. PEKING UNION MEDICAL COLLEGE December 5th, 1919 Your welcome letter of September 12th reached me some time ago. I wonder if your packing case life is over this time. We are just reaching the end of ours as our furniture and books arrived here about ten days ago. Taking everything into consideration things came through in pretty good shape and it is nice to be surrounded with one's books again. I am having great fun in getting the material here. This week I bought eight monkeys, all Macaques. Three from southern China and five from Siam. During the last month I have had a large female camel living in the basement. Read, our physiological chemist, is doing the nitrogen metabolism on this beast and I shall take what remains. The experiment will probably continue from six to eight weeks. It is a treat to see this camel objecting to coming indoors. The whole neighbourhood is made aware of her objections. I may remark in passing that I have come across some Mongolian camel breeders and hope to be able to get some embryos and fetuses as well as obtaining some information with regard to their breeding habits. I mention this because of your delightful stories about the Arabian camel. My comparative osteological material is accumulating fairly rapidly and I have a lot coming, both from Gerrard in London and Waterworth in Hobart. I would, however, be glad to take advantage of your suggestions and make some exchanges as soon as I can accumulate sufficient Primate

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specimens. The trouble is that just at present I have to buy these animals from dealers who sell them as pets at a much advanced price. I paid $8.50 for each of my Macaques and they are all very small individuals. When I go into the field next summer I hope to be able to collect some Primate stuff at a more reasonable figure. Semnopithecus is more difficult to obtain than are Macaques but this only means until I have organized collectors at work. We are holding a medical congress here in February in Peking and I have been fortunate in getting Hrdlicka [Smithsonian Institution] to come out and give a series of lectures at this congress. Elliot Smith was too busy getting settled at University College to answer my inquiries addressed to him in the early summer, so I knew it was useless to try to get him. Keith also had too many previous engagements to try to come here. I wish you could come and cheer us up a bit at that time but I know you have too much on hand to do any running about yet, but you must certainly come some time in the near future. I am going to East Manchuria next summer to investigate a number of cave burials of which I have heard from Père De Prêter, a Jesuit missionary here. I have great hope of getting some good stuff but I shall be glad to get any material. It is much more difficult to obtain human material for study than it is to obtain subjects for execution! The outlying authorities do not seem to have any special regard for human life but they are not at all enthusiastic about having material used after death; however, we have hopes.

Black's first field expedition took place in the summer of 1920 when he went to eastern Mongolia and was followed by others into remote parts. This experience enabled him to test his knowledge of palaeontology. By 1925 he had advanced-in the study of this subject to the point where he could write on it with confidence. His first article appeared in 1925 in Paleontología Sínica and was followed by sixteen others which he contributed to Chinese and Western journals. There was a vast amount of work to be done by Cowdry and Black in setting up the laboratory in Peking and arranging lectures for the medical students. The fact that they were all Chinese, with varying backgrounds and education, might have made the task formidable although one of Black's colleagues in these first years, Dr. Franklin C. McLean, writes of this aspect of their work: "The students I had while I was in Peking (1916-23) were very receptive to western teaching. Most of them, of course, came from missionary colleges and, since our teaching was in English, they were already quite well indoctrinated as to our language and teaching."

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Six months after Black's arrival in Peking, he wrote a long letter to his friend Dr. Kappers in Amsterdam, describing his surroundings and his work. Through Andersson he had heard that it might be possible to get a specimen of the very rare Psephurus which lived in the Yangtze River. He knew Kappers was anxious to get a sample of the brain of this fish, so he had set up a search for it. He ends his letter with a pressing invitation to come on a visit to China and to make his house his headquarters. Later this was accomplished and through this visit Kappers eventually became a member of the China Medical Board in New York, in an advisory capacity. To manage the administration of the College in Peking from New York must have presented many difficulties. This problem was overcome by the appointment of a medical director in China who was responsible for the staff and the work of teaching in college. This important post was filled by the wise and able Dr. Henry S. Hough ton. To manage the non-medical affairs there was a business director who came and went at fairly frequent intervals between the College and the board of management in New York. Roger S. Greene for many years held this position with great ability and tact and was, like Dr. Houghton, on friendly and even affectionate terms with Black throughout his career. By March 1920 the newly established anatomy department was settling down under the care of Cowdry and Black. But it is evident that Black was determined to develop the anthropological work and to do this, he had to leave much of the embryology to his colleague. In any event, he felt that he should have some say in the over-all administration. In a chatty letter to Roger Greene he discussed the problems in his plans for the future. PEKING March 29, 1920 Greetings from across the sea! The country is still here and judging from present indications it is likely to remain in place at any rate until you get back in July. Hrdlicka's visit was most successful. He has a heart of gold -and does not mind putting up with inconveniences, and gives unsparingly of his time and energy. After the Medical Convention he gave a number of lectures by special request, and a number of informal talks. I can assure you that the Foundation should have every reason to be thankful that he came. I only wish I could tell you half of the good he has done, and I certainly appreciate the privilege I have had in getting to know the real

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Hrdlicka. He is an intense idealist, and no one here could fail to realize the soundness and earnestness of convictions. To get down to earth, you will twinkle when you hear that Hrdlicka became convinced before he left that there was no lack of desire on the part of the men out here to make the collection idea go. By that I do not mean the Physical Anthropology collection only—I mean all our collections of facts and things pertaining to the Chinese. Whether one calls it museum work or not it is the work that counts, for we are here to help the West to understand and appreciate the East, and to do so we must collect facts. . . . In my letter to Cowdry (who is in New York) I also mention the matter of my representation on the Administration Board and the changing of my present title. As you are probably aware, Cowdry has taken over all the work in connection with the collection of Embryos in China, because I have my hands full in dealing with the Anthropological and Comparative side of our collection. My chief work outside my teaching is along Anthropological and Neurological lines. For these reasons it would seem to serve the best interests of the department and to be a more accurate statement of the facts if my title were changed to Professor of Anthropology and Neurology in place of Embryology and Neurology, as it is at present. Needless to say, Cowdry and I are in complete agreement on this subject. Black's second year in Peking was an exciting one. On March 12, 1921, a son was born to the Blacks, their first child after seven years of married life. Only a few days after the birth he writes in a jubilant mood to his friend, Professor F. Wood Jones in Adelaide, New South Wales. PEKING, CHINA March 16th, 1921 Listen to our news—on the morn of March 12th, 1921, a wee edition of Davidson Black arrived! ! ! How's that for real news! ? ! ?! ? Another bit of gossip is that Cowdry has resigned—owing to the ill health of his wife—and I am now the incumbent in Anatomy here—aren't you sorry for Anatomy? Cowdry will take up work with Flexner in the Rockefeller Institute in New York. He has only been here the last three months out of the past twelve, so I have been working at the job for some time. I have got a line on the vast stores of fossil material in the Geological Surveys collection here by showing an interest in the material—intelligent interest, however, I do not say! . . . Dr. Cowdry's resignation was a sad wrench, although it meant stepping into his shoes. Together they had planned the new Anatomy Department and Black was not one to part with friends without

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regret. He never ceased to be grateful to Cowdry for his part in bringing him to China and when he became famous and returned to America on furlough, he looked up his old friend to give him first-hand news. During the next three months Black's life was full of alarms and excursions. These were to test his mettle and at the same time to establish him in his profession and endear him to his friends and associates. When his promotion as head of the Anatomy Department became official, he wrote to the director of the College, Dr. Houghton, to express his appreciation. This was the beginning of a long friendship. Now Black could look forward to teaching anatomy on his own lines and to developing the anthropological museum, a project that was occupying more and more of his attention. To stimulate interest in this subject, he had tried to organize an anthropological association but this had failed. He had, however, as we know, been successful in bringing to the college Dr. Hrdlifka. This innovation was followed in after years by visits of many of the leading anatomists of European and American colleges. Davidson Black had been on the staff for two years when in September 1921 the formal opening of the College took place although teaching had been in full swing for two years. Outstanding personalities in the medical world were invited to take part in the ceremonies and among these was Professor A. B. Macallum, F.R.S., recently appointed to the staff of McGill University, Montreal, as head of the Department of Physiology and Physiological Chemistry. As Macallum was the only Canadian who took part, it is reasonable to suppose that it was Black who suggested him. Addresses were to be given by the visiting professors, but first the text had to be scrutinized by the authorities. An awkward situation arose when Macallum protested in no uncertain terms that he was not accustomed to having his texts edited. He was mollified when it was pointed out that when texts were translated into Chinese or English there were apt to be misunderstandings. In one instance, it was reported, a Chinese potentate had been transferred to another station and had "taken his concubines in his train." When translated into English it read "he had taken a trainload of concubines." Dr. Macallum was asked to stay on and give a course of lectures

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to the students. On his return to Montreal he instituted an exchange of graduate interns between the Peking Union Medical College and McGill University Medical School. In the files of the China Medical Board there are many letters telling of the experiences of these young Canadians in China. After Macallum's departure Black was eager to put his theories of the dispersal of the primates to the test and longed for opportunities to go into the field. A small sum of money became available for this purpose and under the direction of J. Gunnar Andersson he went to Jehol in November 1921 to look at some fossil remains in the caves and river terraces along the Lan River. "We had the pleasure," wrote Andersson about this trip, "of co-operating with Dr. Davidson Black, who in most important respects assisted the investigations of the burial ground which we were excavating with Dr. Zdansky."1 Black's minutely written field diary of this expedition exists, listing the number of skeletons uncovered in the caves along the river banks. Black may have been carried away in his enthusiasm for this and other small anthropological expeditions, and it is possible that rumours reached New York that he was overstressing this subject. It may also have been a routine inspection tour of the College that brought Dr. R. M. Pearce to Peking in April 1921. The duties of this adviser on medical education for the Rockefeller Foundation were to make thorough investigations of the departments of the College and to recommend changes, if necessary, to the director. Dr. Pearce made a lengthy visit and without waiting for his return to New York wrote a letter to Black. In view of the later history of the anatomy department it is worth quoting. It also reflects the kindly nature of the writer and the magnanimous attitude of the recipient and explains why Black was respected and beloved by the majority of his associates. PEKING April 4, 1921.

DEAR BLACK: Before leaving for my southern trip I want to say a word of appreciation of the very kindly way in which you have taken my many criticisms of you and your department. I know that I have jollied you and threatened you and bullied you and cursed you, but you took it all so well, partly I believe because you know that I have really grown very fond of you and that I leave the situation in regard to anatomy in your hands with confi1. J. G. Andersson, Children of the Yellow Earth (London, 1934), p. 167.

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dence that you will make good. You have a splendid opportunity to develop a magnificent department. The progress in your department is more than that in any other and if you follow the wiser course of cooperating with your colleagues in the other departments of the Medical School, keeping always in mind that we are working for a common goal, the education of medical students and a respectable amount of research, you will, I am sure, have a very happy career. I realized that I have perhaps minimized the importance of anthropology and related subjects, largely because I fear that in China at least it might tend more to archaeology than to comparative anatomy. If you think of anatomy for nine months out of the year, it is no one's business what you do with the other three months in the summer in connection with anthropology, but for the next two years at least give your entire attention to anatomy. Perhaps by that time, you will, with your young son, have other interests which will appear more important than expeditions to mythological caves. Don't let the Anthropological and Anatomical Society separate the interests of the Department too widely. I am quite in favour of the popular lecture two or three times a year under the Anthropological Society with topics of general interest, but try to bring real research of anatomy into the faculty of the Medical Society and thus add to the community interest which we all have in the affairs of the school. Also keep in mind the needs of the clinician, especially the advanced course of the third and fourth year in relation to medicine and surgery specialties. If you follow the plans that you and I have discussed, I will always be prepared to back you with the Trustees and I am sure that these plans will give you the greatest happiness in the long run as well as the greatest success in your work. Please let me say what I think you already know, that I write in this purely personal way because I have become exceedingly fond of you. Very sincerely yours, R. M. PEARCE. It was rumoured after this episode that Pearce had come with the intention of dismissing Black and left with the feeling that whoever else had to go it would not be the head of the anatomy department. Black followed Dr. Pearce's advice by building up the Anatomy Department with an able staff but continued to stress the importance of physical anthropology. He drew the attention of his pupils to the prehistory of their own country and found their eager response encouraging. During the years 1921 and 1922 he continued to keep in close touch with the field work of Andersson in various locations in China. His

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active mind was at the same time pondering the possibilities of travelling further afield in search of evidence of early man. By the end of 1922 he was prepared to lay his plans for an exploratory trip to Siam before his chief, Dr. Hough ton. In a lengthy memo he outlined his reasons for wishing to undertake this journey. He pointed out that one of the aims of the College was to promote research. Further, the graduates and undergraduates took a lively interest in their racial origin and their ancestry but needed an example of extended research to fire their imagination and to attract scholars from other parts of the world. The study of human origins had always been of profound interest to the medical profession and the Peking Union Medical College was in a singularly favourable position to foster this study in the East. To stimulate this desire Black proposed that he should take an exploratory expedition to Siam before leaving for his furlough. In submitting the memo to Roger Greene, Dr. Houghton wrote, "While I cannot be certain that the project which Black has in mind is severely practical in its nature, I must confess that I have been deeply impressed by the past two years' work done by him and the valuable relationship he has been able to establish between our department of anatomy and the various institutions and expeditions which are doing important work in China in the fields which touch closely upon anthropology research. With these points in mind I recommend the granting of his request." At the end of March all was settled and Black wrote to Wood Jones in Adelaide: "The Siam trip has emerged from the realms of speculation and is now definitely decided upon, the trustees having set their seal of approval on both the idea of the trip and sanctioning the expenditure of the money. Now I almost wish I had not suggested the trip as I shall have to send my wife and wee Davy home by themselves and spend the greater part of the summer knocking round by myself in the tropics. My plans at present will carry me up to the northwest corner of Siam and down by river, then on through the Malay Peninsula to Singapore." Before setting out Black wrote to Greene in New York, thanking him for "giving me the necessary backing. I am not too sanguine about making any palaeontological finds. There is about one chance in a million of success in that line."

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The journey took place in May and June 1923, after the end of the academic year, and the results as far as discoveries of fossils were concerned were disappointing. No report seems to have been made. Writing in 1960 of his memory of this trip, Dr. Houghton said: "Black made an informal and verbal report to me. It was in no sense a scientific expedition—rather more like a summer vacation with a scientific allure." The region where specimens were expected to be found was so heavily coated with travertine (a limestone deposit from springs hardening on exposure) that only with great expense could it be explored. But at least Black had satisfied himself that now he knew it was useless at the present time to spend time and money on further exploration in Siam. He returned to Peking disappointed and exhausted from the heat and the exertion. During this period Black had to face another crisis in his career. His friend and former teacher of anatomy in Toronto, Professor J. Play fair McMurrich, wrote to ask him if he would consider giving up his work in China to join the Department in his Alma Mater in Toronto. The prospect of a secure post for life with a pension on retirement perhaps seemed for the moment wise to consider, especially as he now had to think of the future career of his young son. But it is difficult to believe that he really wanted to turn his back on his present life. Dr. Houghton, the Director of the college, was disturbed by the news and wrote to Greene in New York to take up the matter with Professor McMurrich to see if the appointment could be postponed. Greene wrote: February 1, 1922. DEAR DR. McMuRRicn : Dr. H. S. Houghton, Director of the Peking Union Medical College, tells me that Toronto University has offered to Dr. Davidson Black a professorship in the department of anatomy and that it was hoped that he might begin his duties with the academic year 1922-3. While we shall be greatly distressed to lose Dr. Black's co-operation which has been very valuable not only in the department but in the medical school as a whole, we do not, of course, wish to stand in the way of his advancement, and it is naturally gratifying to us to have our judgment of Dr. Black's ability confirmed by such a flattering offer from his own school. The question arises, however, whether it would not be possible to make some arrangement so that Dr. Black's departure from Peking might be postponed for a year or more. Dr. Black's present term of service in the

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field expires at the end of the academic year 1922-3 and it would be a great convenience to us if we could have that time in which to find a man to take his place. As you may be aware, Dr. Black has been only one year in his present position as head of the department, having taken the place left vacant by the resignation of Dr. E. V. Cowdry. The staff of the department has not yet been completed, and to lose Dr. Black at the end of this year would be very embarrassing to us. Dr. Black also has under way some work of his own which he would be glad to carry further before returning to Canada. I am therefore writing now to ask whether it would be possible for you to defer final action in this matter until Dr. R. M. Pearce can have an opportunity to discuss it with you. Dr. Pearce is leaving to-morrow for a hurried trip to Brazil but will be back in April and plans to visit Canada during the latter part of that month or early in May. Assuring you of our appreciation of any assistance that you may be able to give us in enabling us to fill Dr. Black's place with the least possible embarrassment to the school at Peking. . . . In reply to Greene, McMurrich wrote: Dr. Black has decided the matter in a manner which is very disappointing for me. He has decided that he could not, with justice to your Board, come to us before two years from now at the earliest, and as it will be impossible for us to wait that length of time, negotiations with Dr. Black must cease for the present at least. I must say that this has been a very great disappointment to me, but I understand, I think, fully, Dr. Black's position and appreciate it. I trust that your Board will give due weight to the sacrifice of his inclinations Dr. Black has made, from a high sense of duty. By February 1922 the question was settled and once more fate seems to have taken a firm hand in directing Davidson Black's destiny.

CHAPTER

FIVE

Black's Scientific Circle

DURING the early 1920's, undaunted by the confused condition of China's internal government, foreigners poured into her great cities for a wide variety of reasons. The numerous legations in Peking augmented their staffs to deal with the problems of their nationals and to help foster any trade that might be advantageous to their countries. And this in spite of the fact that it was just over twenty years since the horrors of the Boxer troubles had rent the country and there was still the outstanding debt of "Boxer reparations" to stir up resentment when the Chinese were reminded of it. Among the well-educated and scientifically trained Chinese, there was a strong desire to ignore their troubles and to expend their efforts to acquire Western learning. These people welcomed the opportunity to associate with fellow scientists on the staff of such institutions as the Peking Union Medical College and the foreign professors in their own universities. Thus Peking became the centre of an able group of scientists many of whom became Black's friends and played leading parts in the drama of his life as it unfolded. With all China before him waiting to be explored Black began to cultivate relations with the members of the newly established Geological Survey of China and to join in short expeditions with members to the surrounding territory under the guidance of Andersson. Through this association he met the eminent geologist and palaeontologist, Dr. Amadeus W. Grabau. He was an American of German descent who had come to China in 1920 as a teacher at Peking

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University. He was described by Andersson as a scholar and a genius and a delightful man. He joined the Geological Survey of China as an adviser and was greatly respected by his colleagues. A contemporary describes him as being too deep for the Chinese, a fact which kept him out of trouble. It was not always easy to steer a smooth course where men of several nationalities had to row in the same boat but Grabau seems to have managed this. He admired Black's grasp of the study of ancient climates and when Black was no longer present to speak for himself, Grabau wrote in the Memorial Volume: "Black felt man must be studied in the light of his environment and that to understand primitive hominids we must know something of the geology of their homelands and especially the vicissitudes of climate they had to endure." Another associate of Black's was Dr. Wong Wen-hao, the director of the Geological Survey of China. On Wong's board were several westerners whose interference he resented but in Black he found a colleague who would go more than half way in keeping friendly relations between the survey and the Peking Union Medical College. Later, when the Cenozoic Research Laboratory was set up by Black, it became an adjunct of the Geological Survey. Probably the most brilliant of the Chinese scholars was Dr. T. V. Ting, a pupil of W. K. Gregory of the American Museum of Natural History. He returned to China and threw himself into the work of organizing the Geological Society. With his international outlook he was able to sympathize with Black in his struggle to set up the study of comparative anatomy and to further anthropological research. He greatly admired the footing of equality which Black established between his Chinese colleagues and himself, and wrote later, also in the Memorial Volume: "He [Black] forgot altogether about their nationality or race because he realized that science was above such artificial and accidental things." The Chinese universities were eagerly seeking Western professors and lecturers to add to their staffs, and it was in this way the young geologist and geomorphologist, Dr. George B. Barbour, came to China in 1920 and took up his work there, first at Yenching University and later at Peking. Of Scottish descent, he became internationally known through his work in China, and his later work as consultant in other parts of the world when prehistoric discoveries were made. Throughout Black's career in China they remained fast friends and collaborated

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on many occasions. Many of Dr. Barbour's meticulous geological and physiographic drawings appeared in Andersson's Children of the Yellow Earth and in the publications of the Geological Survey of China. The most sympathetic and correct short account of Black's life that has come down to us was written by Barbour and appeared in the Bulletin of the Geological Survey of America in June 1935. Many extracts have been used from this account and from Barbour's contribution to the Memorial Volume. The name of Roy Chapman Andrews, zoologist and explorer, is perhaps better known to the general reader than are the names of the scientists who actually associated with Black. Andrews wrote many popular books describing his life of adventure in China and elsewhere, and made a name for himself as the explorer for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In 1921 he arrived in Peking to make elaborate preparations for expeditions to Mongolia and the Gobi desert. He had at his disposal vast sums of money, much of it donated by wealthy New Yorkers who had been induced by Andrews to augment the small amount that was available from the Museum itself. There had been a good deal of fanfare in the American papers on what was called "the Missing Link Expedition"—in spite of Andrews' protests that it was chiefly to prove the belief of Professor Osborn of the Museum that central Asia was the theatre of mammalian evolution. It took a year in China to gather the personnel and equipment for the first expedition. In the meantime Andrews made his headquarters in an enormous Chinese house which he called his "Peking Palace." Here he entertained the international society of Peking in an elaborate manner. The first expedition was ready to start in the spring of 1922, and Black was asked by Andrews to join it as an anatomist. He emphatically refused. This seemed incredible to Andrews since he had already turned down more than two hundred applications of scientists and others who wanted to go in almost any capacity. However, Dr. Black and Mrs. Andrews with a few others joined the rearguard of the expedition for the first two days especially to see the city of Urga, which Andrews describes as "the most fascinating city I have found in all my wanderings." They saw the Festival of Buddha before they bade Andrews good speed and returned over the treacherous road to Peking. It is a matter of record that neither on this expedition nor on two

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later ones did museum explorers find any signs of the "Missing Link." Dinosaurs' eggs, surprisingly small, and dinosaur bones were found and caused a stir in scientific circles when exhibited in New York. Although Black's approach to his work and his open dealings with the Chinese scientists were very different from Andrews', they remained on friendly, though not intimate, terms. By the early 1930s, the Chinese made life difficult for the explorers to Mongolia by demanding a share in the specimens taken on these journeys. Not long after, the American Museum of Natural History closed their headquarters in Peking. By an independent route there arrived in Peking the brilliant scholar who had first become known outside his native France in the early stages of the Piltdown furore. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., was born in 1881 in the ancient district of Puy in the Auvergnes. Curiosity about the volcanic cones there early aroused his interest, and after he had taken the vows of the Society of Jesus, he became a student of biology and geology. In 1922 he took his doctor's degree in Paris and there met Pierre Marcellin Boule and, later, Henri Breuil in the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine. But his ideas on human origin brought him into trouble with his superiors and he was removed from teaching in France by his Order and sent to the Musée des Hautes Etudes in Tientsin. There he came into contact with others of similar tastes through the Geological Survey and the Peking Natural History Society which were in the process of organization. Here in the world of scholars of many nationalities his captivating personality cast a spell over all who met him. With all his learning he was a man of great humility. Never anticipating honours, he was surprised when they came. One of his friends, George Barbour, wrote of him : "While strict with himself, he was amazingly tolerant of human failings in others. He instantly had a kindly interpretation of any weak brother's action. He was utterly without conceit and found it well-nigh impossible to think ill of any man." He and Black became fast friends and at times collaborators in the quest that was developing in the search for endeavours of prehistoric man. Teilhard's work took him to many parts of the world but he frequently returned to China and was always received with affection and gaiety at the Black's house. A wonderful teller of tales, much midnight oil was burned whenever he joined the family circle.

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With two important scientific research parties centred in Peking, there was at times an exchange of personnel, especially among the free-lance scholars. Dr. C. C. Young was a Chinese geologist with a background of European study who had done work under Andersson and with Teilhard. He joined Andrews on one of his trips to Mongolia and eventually threw in his lot with those working with Black. Dr. Walter Granger, too, was diverted into the camp of Andersson and his companion Zdansky while he was waiting for the prolonged start of one of Andrews' expeditions. Granger was the authority on mammals in the American Museum of Natural History and was an expert on methods of excavating artifacts and fossil bones. In several of Black's monographs his work is acknowledged and praised. With J. Gunnar Andersson, Black was to be drawn into close association. Their skills were complementary since without Black's anatomical knowledge certain aspects of Andersson's geological discoveries might have been lost, and lacking Andersson's wide understanding of geological conditions in China, Black's search for hominid fossils would have been protracted. Between 1920 and 1927 these two men and their associates frequently collaborated and laid the foundation of prehistoric research in China. Five years before Black came to Peking, Andersson had been moving about the remote districts as a mining expert employed by the government of China, an ever-changing establishment, to find coal. This was a thankless task, for as likely as not when coal beds were found, no funds were available for transporting the coal to centres where it was needed. Fortunately he became deeply concerned in his wanderings with China's prehistory, which he felt could be traced in the fossil remains of the flora and fauna including hominids. When his work as a mining adviser came to an end he was appointed one of the directors of the Geological Survey of Sweden and a field worker for the new formed Geological Survey of China. One of the most curious traditions encountered everywhere in China by Andersson was the belief in the existence of dragons. The origin of this powerful myth is lost in antiquity. It entered into every phase of life. Stories of the ways of dragons, alive or dead, their appearance, their powers, their bones, their blood, and particularly their teeth played an important part in the daily life of a large section of

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the population. What interested him most perhaps was the value set on the medicinal uses of the fossil teeth of mysterious dragons. Even modern chemists kept a supply on hand, since their customers believed firmly in their powers, not only to cure their bodily ills but to ease their hearts and calm their souls. Professor Max Schlosser was one of the first scientists to suggest that some of the teeth whose curative powers were so much prized might be those of primitive man. In 1899, a German naturalist, K. A. Haberer, went to China to explore the interior, but found he could only visit the ports because of hostility to foreigners during the "Boxer" troubles. He was intrigued by the collections of teeth in the apothecaries' shops, and brought back a collection of them as souvenirs. They were examined in Munich by Professor Schlosser who declared them to be not those of reptiles, but of fossil mammals. Only one, however, appeared to be that of an ape or possibly a hominid. On this he wrote a monograph, but, as no location of the find could be given, search for others dropped. As an anatomist Black was familiar with this story. It had been acknowledged for many years that the nature of the teeth of mammals, their size, their dentition and their position in the jawbone, were important factors in determining their origin. It was not until 1917, three years after Andersson's arrival in China, that a search for places of supply of teeth, any teeth, was undertaken. Mystery surrounded the source of bones and teeth which still filled the chemists' shops, but with the help of an observant missionary, Miss Marie Petterson, Andersson and his workers were led to a place called Shang Yin Kon in Honan. Here and elsewhere in the district they found old mines where bones were embedded in the red clay. But, for want of any real help in identifying the species, the search lapsed for a time. In 1920 Andersson's contact with Black in the Anatomy Department of the Peking Union Medical College spurred him on to follow up rumours of other fossil remains. To help him in these investigations, he engaged, in 1921, the young Austrian palaeontologist, Otto Zdansky. This was a happy choice and the two made an excellent team. Zdansky was a perfect workman, knowledgeable and indefatigable and withal tactful in his dealings with the local inhabitants where sites were found. When deposits were located he could be left to extract the bones in excellent shape. Since Anders-

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son was Swedish it was perhaps natural that relics of any interest later found their way to the museum in Uppsala, where they remained until they were sorted and catalogued by the curator, Professor C. Wiman. In 1921 Andersson and Zdansky decided to visit a place they had heard of in the hills of Chou-K'ou-tien, twenty-five miles southwest of Peking, locally known as "Chicken Bone Hill." Andersson had gone there in 1918 at the suggestion of J. MacGregor Gibb, Professor of Chemistry at what was known as Peking University, and had been struck by the curious pillar of bone-bearing red clay in the middle of the old limestone quarry. This seemed to have been avoided by the local limestone burners. He found there was a well-established tradition about the place. Foxes with a taste for the neighbouring chickens had once lived there; later these marauders had been turned into evil spirits and when tampered with, drove men mad. Thus it was that "Chicken Bone Hill" remained undisturbed until Andersson and his workers began to examine it minutely. But the fossils did not show enough age to interest them to do further work. In 1923, however, the energetic Zdansky again went to work on the mysterious pillar. The local inhabitants this time were more expansive and told him that there were much larger and better dragons' bones about a hundred and fifty metres west of the little railroad station of Chou-K'ou-tien. Always ready to move on to new clues, the party packed up and followed their guide to another abandoned quarry flanked by an almost perpendicular wall of limestone in which a fissure was filled with pieces of limestone and fragments of bones of larger animals, the whole bound together by sintered limestone. They discussed excavation of this site for it seemed to present great possibilities. Zdansky was to start digging and remained for several weeks. Andersson visited him from time to time and on one occasion was attracted by the pieces of broken quartz, which he considered might very well have been used as cutting tools. Early man, he concluded, if he existed there, might have used these pieces of rock for his work. In his own story Andersson describes how he laid his hand on the great wall of limestone and said: "I have a feeling that there lies here the remains of one of our ancestors and it's only a question of finding him." (Black corroborated this story in one of his publications.)

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That was not to be—at least for some years. A great variety of animal bones were excavated by Zdansky, among them a molar belonging, as he thought, to an anthropoid ape. Not much significance was given to this, but the period to which it belonged was tentatively decided upon as not later than the earliest part of the Pleistocene Age. This tooth was sent to Sweden with a great quantity of fossils. Work became more and more difficult and could not be continued without much larger scaffoldings and, as funds for these were not forthcoming, with regret the zealous Zdansky gave up his search as autumn advanced. In following the sequence of events that later led to the extensive excavations of this site, it is significant to note that Andersson himself claimed only the accidental discovery of the site itself and the unearthing of fossil bones and a molar tooth that might be anthropoid. He wrote later: "I suggested that this, in itself an incomplete discovery, might come to be the most important result of our Swedish work in China. I further explained that we had no plan to follow up this result by further investigation." By this time Black was preparing to leave on his first furlough and there is no evidence that he had even heard that a curious molar had been found. This coming and going of men with scholarly interests and varied nationalities made life stimulating and was in sharp contrast to the constant quarrels of the political parties. Black, with his reputation as a scholar and his genial ways, was welcomed by the numerous circles of society that flourished in Peking at this period. In spite of the chaotic development of Chinese politics, there seems also to have been a great intellectual upsurge, or renaissance, and, although these two movements were in strange contrast, they developed simultaneously. The Blacks were both sociable people and were counted as part of the permanent international society of Peking. Cocktail and dinner parties were the order of the day, especially among the members of the legations. One of the staff of the Peking Union Medical College complained there were too many parties and in spite of this one saw some of one's acquaintances only once in a year. There were difficulties for the hostesses on some occasions. The

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language barrier seemed at times almost insurmountable. Once Mrs. Black found herself after dinner with a room full of women who had no common tongue in which to keep up a conversation while their husbands discussed scientific subjects over their wine. After struggling with the situation for some time, she fled to the dining-room and signalled desperately for help to her husband. He sauntered out, picking up on his way a telescope lying on the hall table, bowed politely to the most formidable and notoriously difficult of the ladies and led her to the garden, where he showed her the wonders of the starry heavens. The magic worked and she returned all smiles and graciousness and the social climate thawed perceptibly. Public functions too in Peking were apt to be unpredictable affairs, especially if they involved officials of the government and members of the mixed population, such as the scientists, medical men, geologists and so on. Perhaps there were faults on both sides. For instance, when the 18th Biennial meeting of the China Medical Association met in the spacious quarters of the Peking Union Medical College, it was noticed that all the officials of the organization were foreigners, although a number of those giving papers were Chinese doctors. Yet the affair went smoothly up to a point, in spite of the growing feeling of hostility to the foreign element. At the end of the week of medical discussion, the Prime Minister invited the delegates to a gala reception in a portion of the former Imperial Palace not usually open to the public, at which he, with the aid of a capable interpreter, was the chief speaker. The theme of the address was a long and involved story about some patients known to him who had been successfully cured of their maladies by Chinese doctors of the old style. This was to prove that the old-fashioned doctors knew their job, but kept their skilful methods to themselves because they were family secrets. At the end of his address, perhaps feeling he had gone too far, he grudgingly conceded that at the moment the race appeared to have been won by the modern doctors because of their medical schools. It was a left-handed compliment to those who had been devoting their lives to bringing up-todate medical knowledge into China. It must be admitted, however, that Hu Hsi-kuei was not the first prime minister to make a tactless speech. Chinese doctors of the old and the modern schools lived difficult lives. It was quite possible for them to be sued unmercifully for

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medical neglect of their patients, while foreign doctors in the big centres, such as Shanghai and Peking, were immune from this calamity by their extraterritorial rights. Such was life in Peking as Black knew it in the early twenties. Few foresaw the momentous changes that were to take place during the next decade. The China Medical Board generously allowed the College staff to have one year's leave in every four years of service. The climate of Peking had a debilitating effect on Westerners and a whole year's respite was considered necessary. The intense heat in summer drove those who could afford it to the sea coast or the hills. In winter the temperature often dropped to zero and below, and blinding dust storms were apt to come at any time. The pleasant months of autumn, however, made life tolerable and even enjoyable in Peking. Before sailing Black wrote to Wood Jones about his plans while on furlough: "I expect to spend next winter and the early spring in Toronto finishing up Neurobiotaxis and then I want to spend as much time as I can with Henri Martin and his gang in Paris and at the LaQuina site, taking in also all the available caves that I can. I expect when I come back to China that I will have considerable opportunity to do cave exploration and rock shelter work and I don't know the first thing about technique. I know I have lost a good deal of material that I could otherwise have saved in the little work I have done so far." Henri Martin was one of the early twentieth-century investigators into prehistory in the caves and rock ledges of France, and at LaQuina remains of Neanderthal man had been found. While Black was on leave of absence, Dr. A. Kappers, at the suggestion of Black, spent several months at the Peking Union Medical College, presumably to help in the Anatomy Department and to give special lectures on neurology. Black wrote to him from Toronto saying: "It just goes against the grain to be away while you are in Peking." He had news from a friend telling of the favourable impression Kappers made in the College: "You should see the enthusiasm with which Dr. Kappers is being received here, not only by members of the department but by the physicians and surgeons. He gave an address on 'Reason, Intuition and Religion,' which left us breathless with

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admiration. The students simply eat up what he says and pleased him very much by coming to his office with questions." After two months of relaxation in Toronto Black grew restless. He even mentioned to an official in New York that he thought the furlough period too lengthy. But when he received a letter from the Board announcing that he had been given a fellowship amounting to $1500 for travel and medical study in Europe, he was elated, and at once made plans for visits to many famous scholars who, up to the present time, he had known only by reputation. Except for his nine months war service, he had not been in England or on the Continent since the early months of 1914. His life since then had radically changed—the latent forces in his personality had been developed with his responsibilities in China, without in any way changing his frank and modest natural bent. On his return to Toronto after his European trip, Black wrote to Dr. Vincent, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, to tell him about his tour of laboratories in Europe and how stimulating the experience had been: August 21, 1924 Thank you very much for your kindly "welcome home" letter and also for your earlier letter of July llth. I agree with you that there is something to be said in favour of the calling of a physical anthropologist as compared to that of a politician. At least it is a debatable question, though of course, after all, politics is but a branch of the science and art of anthropology! The British Association Meetings were most successful in Toronto. The most striking communication I had the good fortune to hear was the one by Sir William Beveridge1 on the Fertility of European Races. His delivery was excellent and his subject matter more so—the subsequent mental reaction closely recalled the kick I experienced after my first reading of the Martyrdom of Man.2 My trip to Europe was tremendously stimulating and the contacts established as well as the information and material acquired will be of great use to us in Peking. Sir Arthur Smith Woodward gave me personal 1. Lord Beveridge, after a distinguished career in economics, drew up the plan on which the present British Health and Insurance schemes were based. 2. The Martyrdom of Man by Winwoode Reade was first published in 1871, and the 1931 edition is still in circulation. This offers a curious mixture of unrelated subjects: the account of Reade's lonely journeys to parts of Central Africa previously visited by few Europeans, and an attempt, to solve the problems that have always plagued man in his preoccupations with war, liberty, intellect, and religion.

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cards of introduction to the men whom I most wanted to see, and they all were most generous in giving me access to their laboratories and material. After leaving England I went to Stockholm and Uppsala and then on to Berlin, Prague, Brünn, Vienna, Zagreb, Zurich, Stuttgart, Tubingen, Heidelberg, Frankfurt-am-Main, Bonn, Liege, Paris, Périgueux, and the Dordogne valley, Biarritz and the Isturitz caves [these three areas are those where primitive cave paintings were found], Madrid [where Ramon y Cajal, the famous neurologist, lived], Barcelona, Lyons, Brussels, Amsterdam and Haarlem [home of the Museum where Dubois was on the staff] and back to London. It was certainly a most strenuous two months and though I should have liked to have had more time in each place yet I was able to do the essential things—and I was also able to make about sixty portrait studies of different interesting men in their laboratories. Also as a matter of passing interest I would protest the attraction of Moukden ahead of those of Paris in the art and artistry of entertainment. I have a very deep feeling of appreciation for the wonderful further opportunity the Foundation has given me for study and for the personal and kindly interest you have shown in my goings and comings. The more I see of other laboratories and conditions, the more impressed I am with the greatness of our responsibilities and the opportunities in the East. I am looking forward keenly to our return to Peking, though it is naturally with mixed feelings that we leave Toronto again.

Black's contact with Professor C. Wiman of the Museum of Uppsala was especially interesting since great quantities of fossil material had arrived there from China through Andersson's activities. Although his admiration for Wiman's knowledge of fossils was great, Black may have felt even at this early stage that the Chinese should have more say in what specimens, if any, were to be removed from their country. It was later due to his influence that some of the most significant fossils were returned to China. By early autumn, 1924, the Blacks set out on their long journey back to China. On the way Davidson Black had time to ponder the problems of research he had encountered in his journey around the European laboratories. He had talked to all the leading anthropologists of the day and was struck by the want of co-operation among them. He became convinced that there should be a centre where records of scientific discoveries of fossil remains could be pooled and made available to workers in this field. Perhaps the secretive research work of the Dutch professor, Eugène Dubois, was uppermost in his mind as an example. That strange man kept unopened for thirty years the box containing animal fossils he had found in Java in 1886.

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Nevertheless Dubois' finds in Java were of great value and interest to Black in later years. In a letter of reminiscences written in 1959, Mr. Norman Black, Davidson's cousin, wrote: "One of the unfulfilled dreams about which he often talked to me, on occasions when he passed through Vancouver on his way to China, was the formation of an international body to which every professionally minded archaeologist would report, as soon as possible, all new discoveries and observations having any bearing on prehistoric mankind." Had Davidson Black lived longer there is every indication that this plan could have developed and would have met with the approval of at least some of his colleagues in the scientific world.

CHAPTER

SIX

The College amidst Civil War

IN THE AUTUMN of 1924 Black returned to Peking. Stimulated by the contacts he had made in Europe and by the prehistoric sites of Cro Magnon and Neanderthal man he had visited, he determined to give more of his time to research. To do this he intended to enlarge the physical anthropology side of his department and to employ technicians to do the routine work. It proved a wise move in view of what lay ahead. While he had been on leave the energetic Andersson had spent a year in northwestern China exploring the desolate and earthquakeridden regions of Honan and Kansu. His fellow workers on these strenuous and at times dangerous expeditions were the geomorphologist George Barbour and V. K. Ting of the Geological Survey of China. As archaeologists he took some young Chinese men who were showing interest and ability in research. From time to time they were joined by Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit priest, as an expert on artifacts. They explored the territory for many months and were finally rewarded by unearthing a large deposit of human bones, in a mass grave, as Andersson described it, caused by some catastrophe of the steppes. These expeditions distracted Andersson's attention for a time from the site at Chou-K'ou-tien which had excited his curiosity when he first inspected it with Zdansky. The results of his Honan work, however, proved highly satisfactory to Black when they were turned over to him for analysis. These aeneolithic skulls and other specimens gave

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him his first opportunity to examine and classify a large collection from a well-defined Chinese site recognized as Cretaceous and Tertiary. He wrote happily to Kappers: "I shall have my hands full making a report on one hundred and thirty-five individuals represented by skulls and parts." It was characteristic of him to be able, while working hard on one project, to give a good deal of thought to future plans for another. During the winter of 1924-25 he and Andersson began to discuss the possibilities of making a joint expedition to Chinese Turkestan to search for mammalian relics and to examine the terrain in detail. It was an ambitious project involving much time and money. Undaunted by these barriers they never ceased to explore ways of reaching their goal. In the meantime the winter months in the College were heavy ones for the whole staff. With the growth of the Anatomy Department, procedure there had to be well organized. One of Black's assistants, Dr. Gerhardt von Bonin, gives a clear picture, even after a lapse of more than thirty years, of the way the laboratory was run. Due to the peculiar way in which Davidson Black lived (he generally worked at night) my contacts with him were not numerous. But whenever I wanted anything from him, he was accessible, agreeable and helpful. In spite of his inverted schedule, he knew very well what was going on in his department and held us all with a firm rein. Once a week he called us all together and we mapped out the schedule and courses for the next week. These meetings were conducted on a thoroughly democratic basis and suggestions from "the floor" were permitted and frequently followed. The scientific work was carefully divided. It was the object of the whole department to work up the whole skeleton of the Northern Chinese, of which we had 80 or 90 specimens. Davidson Black worked up the skulls, and nobody was allowed to get near them. In this he was adamant. In working with him, he gave the impression of a man who knew exactly what he was doing, had the work well organized, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Intimate glimpses of the life in a laboratory after a lapse of years are not easily found. But from Black's secretary Olga Hempel we know that he was loyally served by all ranks of his office staff. Her reminiscences of these colourful years give a picture of his contacts with a cross-section of the many workers. "In all the nine years I worked for him I never heard him say a harsh word to anyone, no

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matter what mistakes we made. He was at all times concerned with the welfare of his staff, regardless of status, scrub coolie or full professor. He would arrive at the lab. anywhere between 2.30 and 5.30 in the afternoon, then went home for dinner and would come back for the night's work. Many mornings Dr. Black was still there at 7 A.M. with all the instruction for the day neatly itemized on my desk." She closes this account with the benison: "A humble man whom everyone respected." George Barbour, too, has treasured memories of Black's easy ways with those on his staff. He recalls: "In personal dealings with his subordinates there was an entire absence of superiority or officialdom. In fact, a delightful atmosphere of casualness invested all business in the smoothly running work of the Cenozoic Laboratory. It was never a case of 'Mr. X, will you come to my office at three to-day?' but rather 'Say, old man, I haven't seen you for a coon's age! What about dropping in for a chin as you go past. Oh, any time you like before midnight.' " It was not only his staff who found him easy to work with. His friend, Père Teilhard de Chardin, a welcome visitor at all times, noted that "he was methodical in the administration of his work and in his writings; marvellously adroit in his handling of fossils and in the preparation of casts, orderly in his research. With his profession as an anatomist he combined a great knowledge of geology, physics and chemistry. Besides these qualities he possessed quiet animation, charm and vitality."1 It was at this time, six months after Black's return from furlough, that he was confronted with a difficult decision. With quantities of work he longed to accomplish piling up around him and his head full of plans for extensive exploration, he received a letter from his devoted friend and former teacher, Dr. G. Elliot Smith, telling him that the Chair of Anatomy at the University of Sydney had suddenly become vacant and that he had recommended Black as a suitable person for the post. Smith urged him to consider very seriously accepting the post when the offer came. Black decided to wait until he could see in what spirit the offer was made by Sydney before replying to Elliot Smith, not wishing to wound his feelings by a flat refusal to consider it. When the cable came from Australia, it was a bald offer of an 1. Claude Cuenot, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (Paris, 1958), p. 100 (translation).

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acting professorship. Black then wrote to Elliot Smith pointing out the unusual conditions he enjoyed in the Peking Union Medical College for individual research: the limited number of students and the excellent equipment provided; and not only these advantages, but the problems of physical anthropology in China offered unique and unexplored fields for investigation and he was so deeply committed that he could not lightly turn his back on them. He laid a good deal of emphasis on the international character of the work and organization of an institution of this kind and the fact that he himself had strong convictions of the internationalism of scientific work and wished to contribute all that he could to further its objectives. This was his credo and when the text of the letter was shown to the Director of the College, Dr. Houghton, he wrote to Mr. Greene in New York: "The reading of this letter of Black's has not unnaturally been a source of great gratification as showing a degree of loyalty and interest in our programme, which, if reflected to a similar degree in other departments, constitutes a great promise of the most valuable team work." And so it was decided that Black would definitely remain with the College for at least four or five years. In a confidential reply to Houghton on April 16, 1925, Greene said: "If Black remains in Peking, he has the prospect of being considered for the professorship at Toronto and I have no doubt that other institutions in North America will be glad to get him when he decides he has had all he wants of China." When this decision was faced and disposed of Black appealed to the directors of the College to look for an assistant professor for the Anatomy Department to whom he could turn over most of the teaching and some of the administration. The choice fell on Dr. A. B. Drooglever Fortuyn of the University of Leiden; it could not have been more fortunate. In July 1925 Black heard that Dr. Fortuyn had accepted the appointment and with his wife was now on the way to China. He sent a letter to greet the travellers at some point on their long journey. I was delighted to hear in a cable from New York that you had accepted the post of assistant professor in this department and I am looking forward keenly to having you as a colleague here in Peking. Dr. Kappers will no doubt have told you about this laboratory besides

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giving you a great deal of valuable information about Peking itself. I am sure you cannot fail to like the environment here. Although the country is always in a politically unsettled condition we rarely suffer any inconveniences and conditions for work are almost ideal. During the next teaching year I hope you will undertake the responsibility of giving the course in histology and microscopic anatomy. . . .

This man played such an important role in Black's life and indeed in that of the whole College that no history of the period would be complete without a brief account of his life. Dr. Fortuyn had profited by his excellent medical education in the Netherlands and by the time he left there had established an enviable reputation as a teacher. He had studied under Hugo de Vries, the botanist of mutation fame, and had worked with C. P. Sluiter and with Ariens Kappers. For a time he was with F. W. Mott in England where he became fluent in English. On arrival at the Peking Union Medical College he found laboratory work was arranged on American lines which were strange to him. In Europe a lecturer is independent in his teaching and research while in this American college the head of the department assigned duties to all members of his staff. However Dr. Fortuyn easily adjusted himself to the new methods. On September 25, 1925, Dr. and Mrs. Fortuyn arrived at Shanghai and Fortuyn wrote in his diary: "This afternoon Cor and I walked through that part of Shanghai where the concessions are (British, French, etc.) and visited a small park. Here we had a splendid view of the majestic river where, for the time being, ten large warships of the great powers were anchored. This to remind us of the political troubles . . . but there was no sign of tension." They took the famous Blue Train for Peking. On board was a Chinese dignitary, one of the governors, who had a constant military guard and the train was protected by soldiers at every station. The Fortuyns were apprehensive but arrived safely and were given a warm welcome by Dr. and Mrs. Black. A few days later they dined with the Blacks. "Everything in grand style," Dr. Fortuyn commented. When the two doctors met in the spacious Anatomy Department of the College, Dr. Fortuyn was able to show Black some of his work. In a letter he said, "Dr. Black's enthusiastic nature responded warmly and he wants to keep me longer than the two years which is the usual term of office. However, we feel that this is no place to bring

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up our children while the country is in such political confusion." From this time on Black and Fortuyn made an excellent working pair. Their talents and temperaments fitted well and, without doubt, Fortuyn's ability to assume the burden of teaching allowed Black time to devote himself almost entirely to research and to bring that research to fruition. Unimaginable anxieties lay ahead, but the Fortuyns stayed on until 1942 when, as internees of the Japanese, they were released on an exchange basis. By 1925 Black had been on the staff of the College for six years. At no time during that period had there been a stable government in China. This disturbing state of affairs continued with increasing turbulence during the next decade and after the Japanese occupation in 1937 developed into intense guerilla warfare. It is difficult to picture serious academic life and archaeological research being carried on under such conditions, but in China this was possible until war became worldwide. To understand what led up to the chaotic conditions of Chinese politics we must trace the tragic history of the country as far back as the Manchu Dynasty. In 1644 an army composed of scattered tribes from northeast Manchuria, under an ambitious chieftain, attacked the frontiers of China and finally occupied the whole country. These people, the Manchus, as they were called, were inferior in development and culture to the Chinese, but by placing strong garrisons in the chief cities the populace was kept in subjection. Incredible as it may seem, this stranglehold by aliens continued for 250 years. But in 1842 there were faint signs that evolution and revolution were beginning to stir in the Chinese against their oppressors. Various abortive attempts were made to throw off the Manchus but to little avail. During the latter half of the nineteenth century business concerns from the West began to settle in the cities and after 1860 missionaries were permitted to venture into the inland parts of the country. About 1890 a small secret society, originally intended to overthrow the Manchus, became very active. With little warning, the "Boxers," as they were called, redirected their attacks to the foreigners in the numerous mission stations in North China and then suddenly beseiged the foreign legation quarters in Peking. When the

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armies of the Western powers approached to raise the seige, the Empress Dowager and her followers fled till the danger was past. For a few years more the Manchus held uncertain sway until in 1911 the younger generation of Chinese determined to overthrow their now effete rulers. In October of that year a bomb accidentally exploded in Hankow. Revolution followed. The Manchu were supported by the well-equipped but impoverished imperial army led by the Chinese General Yuan Shih-kai. Pitted against these odds was the mass of disorganized Chinese, fired with pent-up feelings of discontent under oppression. The immediate aim of this rabble was to overthow their rulers and to establish a republic. This was temporarily accomplished in 1912 under the leadership of the high-minded socialist Sun Yat-sen. To appease General Yuan Shi-hai, still in command of the Northern army, the Chinese republicans made him president. But his object, now that the Manchus had fled, was to set up his own imperial rule. Sun Yat-sen opposed this move and in an effort to bring peace by uniting the North and the South, he appealed for foreign aid. When this failed in 1923 he turned to the Soviet Union which had been making attractive overtures to him for some time. In 1924 by means of the Russian agent Michael Borodin, Sun Yat-sen was influenced to admit the small Communist group in China to membership in his National Party. It is, however, doubtful whether Sun himself ever really accepted their doctrine. His hopes to join the North and the South were not realized when he died of cancer in March 1925 at the Peking Union Medical College. His brother-inlaw, General Chiang Kai-shek, took his place. A soldier by training rather than a diplomat, Chiang rallied a huge army and marched north to overthrow the still powerful Northern forces. His real ambition was to subdue any opposition and to become himself dictator of China's destiny. But as we now know, that was not to be. Clashes were frequent between the North and the South and the repercussions on the staff of the College were often seriously disturbing. A vivid picture of what these alarms meant to the doctors and their families has come to light in Dr. Fortuyn's diary. He sent this back to Holland, bit by bit as it was written, and thus a valuable record escaped the fate of other contemporary accounts which were swept, later on, into oblivion. The diary begins shortly after Dr. Fortuyn's arrival in Peking.

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OCTOBER 24, 1925. The political and military situation looks to us like a game of chess. Everyone moves his troops and whoever has the strongest position wins, without any real fighting. DECEMBER 21, 1925. [The tone changes.] A serious battle seems to be in preparation and so we gave money for the care of the wounded. It is strange how little such things affect ourselves and other foreigners. DECEMBER 24, 1925. Last night there was a Christmas party at the Peking Union Medical College. It began with a not exactly peaceful story of Professor H. J. Howard [of the P.U.M.C.] being kidnapped by bandits last summer. [The account of this appeared in a book called Ten Weeks among the Black Dragon River Bandits. This incident occurred in the far northern parts of China, but as it involved a member of the staff tended to cause anxiety.] A new threat of danger arose when it was rumoured that Russia and Japan were about to start a war on Chinese territory. JANUARY 25, 1926. We realize that this would mean war only twenty-four hours by rail from us and I take it more to heart than quarrels among the Chinese themselves. MARCH 11, 1926. It is nearly impossible to do anything for the Chinese, because there is no security. Politically speaking we are not in a revolution but in a state of anarchy. There is practically no government and no ruling class. A change took place when, in March, General Feng Yu-h'siang of the Northern army evacuated Peking and was replaced by the troops of Chang Tso-lin, the dictator of Manchuria. In spite of these upheavals, Dr. Fortuyn "felt it is much to the credit of the Chinese that everything still goes on with a degree of regularity." Nevertheless the foreign population became alarmed. MARCH 21, 1926. We learned this afternoon that the ministers in Peking of the countries with extraterritorial rights may expel their citizens from China without explanation. Therefore if to-morrow our Netherlands minister says we must leave China—we must. A peculiar but not incomprehensible situation. MARCH 27, 1926. The situation is again critical. Our legation urges us to go from our dwelling compound to the Peking Union Medical College at the hoisting of the Blue Peter on the radio mast of the U.S. Legation and from the College soldiers will conduct us to the Legation quarters. This means everything must be left except a few necessities, but to-morrow we shall hide our silver in the College.

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APRIL 3, 1926. Bombs dropped on Peking. You will be very much alarmed by this and I don't understand myself why we remain so calm but everything goes on as usual and so you act yourself as if nothing happens. APRIL 17, 1926. Politics are again quiet. A Comité de Salut will try to keep the troops outside the city. The gates of Peking are now really closed and foreigners have had to climb over the city wall by means of a rope. APRIL 19, 1926. After dining in the Hotel de Peking we went home about eleven o'clock and heard gunfire around Peking which continued all night. It stopped in the morning because, as we were told, the Chinese prefer to shoot at night—you have less chance of hurting anyone and you can see so beautifully the flame leaving the guns! After these alarms the fighting moved away from Peking, although there were still troop encounters near Chou-K'ou-tien in the Western Hills. APRIL 24, 1926. Peking is always more safe than the country. However, the place is full of refugees and with them diseases enter the city. Food is scarce and no fresh vegetables are available. As the summer passed the foreigners ventured to take trips into the country, but even there they could hear bursts of gunfire. In November, 1926, Mrs. Fortuyn travelled to Holland via the TransSiberian Railway to bring her three children out to China and Dr. Fortuyn reported in his diary on Christmas Day: "There is less tension than last Christmas." But peace was not yet in sight. With the cities of the Yangtze in the power of Chiang's army and its uneasy comrades, the Communist forces, wrath was turned on the foreigners in their midst. Hankow was held by the Communist troops under Madame Sun Yat-sen, Borodin, and others who hoped to make it their capital when they could rid themselves of Chiang's army. It was then that the British and other foreign powers lost their important concessions in China. This was a severe blow since it left their people in those parts (Honan and Shantung) in a critical situation, and some people in Peking found the nervous tension unbearable. Dr. Fortuyn noted: FEBRUARY 27, 1927. Although Peking is supposed to be an open city, the danger of insurrection of the masses may not be unthinkable. The fear of nervous breakdown is much greater. Recently a young American doctor precipitately returned to the U.S. Not everyone can stand the peculiar tension which goes with life in Peking.

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Then followed, in March 1927, the last joint engagement of the antagonist Nationalist and Communist forces—the fall of Nanking. Encouraged by the Communist propaganda, Communist soldiers and riff-raff were let loose on the large foreign element in the city and murder, pillage, and burning followed. Openly their object was to get rid of the hated foreigners; secretly they each hoped to get the upper hand in the entire country. Chiang left for Shanghai to enlist the support of the wealthy bankers, industrialists, and the antiCommunist war lords and in this he was successful. The result, for the time being, was the overthrow of the left-wing faction, the expulsion of Borodin and the setting-up of the Nationalist capital in Nanking. From then on, for the decade 1927 to 1936, a terror of unexampled ferocity struck China. The Communists fled or went underground, and so occupied was Chiang Kai-shek that he seemed oblivious of the intentions of his powerful neighbour, Japan, when she seized Manchuria. Against this background, the Peking Union Medical College continued to operate. In an oasis protected by the ample funds of the Rockefeller Foundation, the devoted scientists pursued their teaching and their studies. Nevertheless, the horrors of Nanking, so reminiscent of the Boxer troubles of twenty-six years earlier, caused dismay among the staff, and concern for the safety of their women and children. All through March 1927 alarming rumours circulated in Peking and sleepless nights were often spent by the foreign element who feared a war would result between China, England, and America. In reference to the Nanking massacres Dr. Fortuyn reported: MARCH 25, 1927. "Don't take it too seriously"—That is Black's motto which I borrow from him. But evacuation is discussed. In the department I eye my piles of scientific notes and so does Stevenson [Dr. Paul H.]. Black eyes the splendid collection [of prehistoric skeletal matter] in his department.

Black's complete accord with his Chinese friends in the Geological Survey and the archaeologists in the field had made him appear less apprehensive until there seemed danger of mob rule. Now the situation had worsened. MARCH 29, 1927. The situation of the Peking Union Medical College begins to deteriorate. The Dean and the Director send away their families. Men stay or return after taking their families to safety. The

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political situation is tense. All the Chinese are calm, but daily expect Peking to be in the hands of the Southern Army [Chiang's]. APRIL 2, 1927. Mrs. Black and the children leave for America. The Rockefeller Foundation insures private property against all risk without cost to us—one less anxiety. APRIL 7, 1927. I am depressed—but it will pass. APRIL 9, 1927. There is a noticeable relaxation—not so much because serious things do not occur any more as because so much is being accepted without reaching the breaking-point. JUNE 1, 1927. The Northern Army has been driven north to the Yellow River. Whereas in March foreigners were afraid, now the Chinese are nervous and the foreigners calm. Nevertheless the tension during the past months warned the foreign population that their expulsion might come at any time. On July 4, 1927, Black wrote to Dr. W. K. Gregory of the Comparative Anatomy Department of the American Museum of Natural History: "Forgive me for having delayed writing to you for so long, but the unsettled conditions here have quite disorganized my correspondence. In the past six weeks I have been devoting my whole time to the laboratory, in order to get my records, and so on, in a portable form so that in case we have to leave, I can carry with me the gist of the past three years work on our prehistoric human skeletal material." As the summer wore on the strain lessened and by midsummer Dr. Fortuyn was able to travel to Java to meet his wife and children, who on their way back from Holland to Peking, had broken their journey there when the political troubles in China were at their worst.

CHAPTER

SEVEN

Anthropology

Two DRAMAS were being enacted simultaneously in northern Chinaone political, the other scientific. It was as if two plays were taking place on a revolving stage, the actors only occasionally disturbing one another. The drama of science began to increase in tempo in October, 1926, when it was announced that the Crown Prince of Sweden with his suite was about to pay a visit to Peking. To honour the Prince, Andersson arranged a gala scientific meeting at which all the leading men engaged in research would be present. Since the Prince himself had taken part in numerous archaeological expeditions during his journey round the world, it was felt that this would be an appropriate and flattering way in which to entertain him. The meeting was held in the Medical School and the president of the Geological Society, Dr. Wong Wen-hao, welcomed the royal guest. Among the speakers was Dr. Teilhard de Chardin, who told of his discovery of the early Stone Age man in the Ordos desert, on the southern fringe of the Gobi. Andersson, the last speaker, had reserved for himself the astounding news of the discovery by Dr. Zdansky of two molars of a creature resembling a human being. One had been found in 1923 at Chou-K'ou-tien, and the other, a pre-molar, had come to light in material sent from there to Uppsala. Andersson showed lantern slides of the teeth and suggested that this might be the most important result of the Swedish research work in China. He felt that a large-scale examination of the area of Chou-K'ou-tien should

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be made with the co-operation of Dr. Davidson Black and the Chinese Geological Survey. After the meeting the molars were turned over to Black for examination and further identification. Before he had time to make any statement, however, a sensational announcement appeared in the press. Andersson tells the story in his Children of the Yellow Earth. "Grabau, who invents such excellent terminology, immediately named the new discovery 'The Peking Man' and it was under this name that this hominid discovery became known throughout the world." This quotation is important since in some circles Black was accused of originating the name on the slender evidence of the two molars which he had not yet examined. Before leaving Peking the Crown Prince was invited to inspect the Peking Union Medical College. Black seized this opportunity to arrange a select meeting in his office at which final plans would be ratified for the joint expedition to Chinese Turkestan, planned six months before by himself and Andersson. The Prince was asked to take the chair; Mr. Lagrelius, a member of his staff, was made Treasurer of the Swedish Research Committee, Dr. Andersson represented Sweden, and Dr. Houghton, as director of the College, spoke for the Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Wong Wen-hao was present on behalf of the Geological Survey, and Black was named technical member of the enterprise. The result of the meeting was a unanimous agreement that the expedition would be a joint affair as to funds and personnel. A formal statement was given to the representatives of each party and everyone appeared happy, especially Black and Andersson. With the departure of the Crown Prince, the excitement subsided and Black returned to his laboratory to make a thorough examination of the molars. He was impressed with the results and wrote in unrestrained delight to Sir Arthur Keith: October 27, 1926 There is great news to tell you—actual fossil remains of a man-like being have at last been found in Eastern Asia, in fact quite close to Peking. This discovery fits in exactly with the hypothesis as to the Central Asiatic origin of the Hominidae which I reviewed in my paper "Asia and the Dispersal of Primates." I have every hope that I shall shortly be able to organize a systematic two-year research project on the Chou-K'ou-tien deposit and neighbouring

RIGHT: The Peking Union Medical College BELOW: The Auditorium of the Peking Union Medical College

Davidson Black seated (second from right) with staff and students before the portico of the unfinished Anatomy Building in December 1919

The Western Hills, site of Black's excavations, and the village of Chou-K'ou-tien

On the road to Chou-K'ou-tien

The entrance to the lower cave at the site, Chou-K'ou-tien

Cross section of hill at an early stage of the excavations. Shaded hands indicate zones rich in ashes, tools, and bones. Letters show where skulls and other bones were found. (From William Howells, Mankind in the Making, 1959)

RIGHT: Photograph taken by Dr. Black shows site of the operations at Chou-K'outicn, 1927. Arrow indicates where excavations began O

CENTRE: At work, excavating lower cave. Scale can be judged by size of men against hillside BOTTOM: Birgir Bohlin, Davidson Black, and C. Li at the site

Left to right: W. C. Pei, C. C. Young, Teilhard de Chardin, Davidson Black, G. B. Barbour. Taken at Chou-K'ou-tien

Davidson Black and Grafton Elliot Smith (kneeling) at the site, 1930

Davidson Black at work in his laboratory in the Anatomy Building of the Peking Union Medical College

W. C. Pei

C. C. Young

Adolescent Sinanthro-pus skull, restored by Davidson Black

Peking Man. Restoration of female skull by Weidenreich. (^One-quarter natural size. After Weidenreich. From William Howells, Mankind in the Making, 1959)

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areas in co-operation with the Geological Survey of China. Also there is every prospect that I shall be freed from teaching at the close of this academic year to devote my time to the completion of my work on the prehistoric crania from Honan and Kansu in preparation for our Central Asiatic expedition. The latter will be organized under the auspices of the Geological Survey, supported by funds derived from the Division of Studies of the Rockefeller Foundation and from the Swedish Research Committee of which the Crown Prince is chairman. The foreign technical staff will be Dr. J. G. Andersson as executive head, geologist and archaeologist, an assistant for him, and myself in charge of anthropological work. We plan to make our start for Chinese Turkestan in the late autumn of 1928. Does this not sound exciting?

Black's next task was to approach the Rockefeller Foundation through Roger Greene to ask for funds with which to make a largescale excavation at the caves of Chou-K'ou-tien. To his delight and relief a generous sum was forthcoming. This response showed a marked change in the attitude of the authorities in New York towards Black's efforts to promote research into China's prehistory from his experience in 1921. By spring, 1927, a small army of workers went into the field. The financial burden was chiefly borne by the Rockefeller Foundation, but the working force was headed by Dr. Birgir Bohlin of Sweden and C. Li, the Chinese geologist. When the working party arrived at Chou-K'ou-tien the local inhabitants gave a good deal of trouble when they sat down on the site and tried to prevent the archaeologists from digging. This opposition gradually gave way to be followed by a much more dangerous situation, when the workers found themselves caught in the crossfire of the warring political armies. They continued their excavations, sheltered only by the dubious knowledge that their territory being owned by the government was therefore immune from attack. Those in charge of the difficult task of excavating were so intent on their work that it is quite possible they did not consider they were making history. Many years later this contribution was acknowledged. In 1959 a book was published in Cambridge called Archaeology in China by Dr. Cheng Pe-K'un.1 In the preface of this interesting work, Dr. Gwyn Daniel declared, "From the point of view of the Western world, the study of ancient China may be said to have 1. This work is available in North America from the University of Toronto Press.

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begun in 1927. Chinese prehistory is thus only thirty years old." Dr. Cheng Pe-K'un describes the excavations as "one of the most extensive operations undertaken in the search of human ancestors. . . . The whole hillside was literally torn off from the mountain range to a depth of fifty metres." These are interesting modern estimates. During the long, hot summer the workers laid bare the cavities east and west for a distance of five metres with a breadth of sixteen metres north and south. But it was observed that only part of this was fossil-bearing. All material taken out had to be carefully sifted and examined, but for some time nothing spectacular was found. Work on the caves could not be done in the winter, and the heavy rains of August generally put a stop to excavating. There remained the fine, chilly weather of early autumn in which to finish the season's work. The hopes of the workers in 1927 were fading when on October 16th a hominid tooth was discovered by Bohlin and triumphantly delivered by him to Black. In a characteristically cheerful letter, Black announced the find to Andersson, who had returned to Sweden. "Bohlin is a splendid and enthusiastic fellow who refused to allow local difficulties and military crises to affect his work. . . . On October 19th at half past six in the evening he came to my institution in field dress, covered with dust but beaming with pleasure. He had finished the season's work despite the war and on October 16th had discovered the tooth. He was himself on the spot when it was taken out of the deposits. Certainly I was overjoyed. Bohlin came to me before he told his wife that he was in Peking. He is indeed a man after my own heart and I hope that you will tell Wiman how much I value his assistance in procuring Bohlin for our work in China. He is quite certain that he will find more of Homo pekinensis when he begins to sift in the lab the material he has taken home."2 Black made an intensive examination of this beautifully preserved left lower molar, comparing it with the two earlier finds, and had no hesitation in setting up a new hominid genus which he generously named Sinanthropus pekinensis Black and Zdansky. He used Zdansky's name to identify the molar since he it was who had found the first specimens at this site in 1923. 2. From Children of the Yellow Earth by J. G. Andersson, p. 107.

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With the assurance that the Rockefeller Foundation would provide funds for the next two years work at the caves, Black began to make definite plans for his extended trip into Chinese Turkestan. His second furlough was due early in 1928 and he hoped on his return at the end of the year all would be in readiness for the journey. To explain the situation he addressed a memorandum to his superiors Dr. Houghton and Roger Greene. He wrote of the long and active association he and Dr. J. G. Andersson had established with the sanction of the Geological Survey of China, in which Andersson had produced the prehistoric human material and he himself had undertaken to contribute the physical anthropological reports. The understanding was that the material itself, after it had been studied in the Anatomy Department of the Peking Union Medical College, would be returned to the Survey and remain Chinese property. This principle was greatly appreciated by the Chinese. The memorandum continues: "In March, 1926, Dr. Andersson asked me if I could collaborate with him in a two- or three-year expedition to Chinese Turkestan in which I was to become responsible for its anthropological work." Dr. Pearce of the Rockefeller Foundation and Andersson had discussed this subject. Later events such as the finding of the hominid fossil remains at Chou-K'ou-tien had further strengthened the bonds between the Chinese, Swedish and the Peking Union Medical College. Political unrest and anti-foreign agitation in the early months of 1927 had put a stop to developing the plans for this expedition, but now, on the eve of his departure on his second furlough, Black hoped to go to Sweden where Andersson was spending his leave of absence, there to discuss final plans for a start in 1929. I here append [he wrote] a very general statement as to the use to which the Rockefeller Foundation yearly grant will be put. Caravan costs vary greatly and much depends on the type of locality we encounter. For my own work, equipment and excavation work, the cost may amount to $20,000 per year. This estimate is based on consultation with the explorers, Sven Hedin and Roy Chapman Andrews, and our six years' experience at Chou-K'ou-tien.

Hedin and Andrews had long been notorious in China for their daring trips into remote and dangerous regions. Neither of them was a trained scientist, although the knowledge they had picked up in their travels was exceedingly practical and of great use to their less

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experienced friends. Sven Hedin, a Swede, was born in 1865, and was, therefore, twenty years older than Black and no longer a young man when they met in China. He had spent his entire life in the Far East and had published many books on his travels. The foreign population of Peking lionized him but he was looked on with a certain amount of resentment by the Chinese, who suspected him of taking treasures out of the country. On one occasion the Chinese government insisted on his taking some Chinese scientists with him on an expedition to Mongolia, partly to learn certain skills from him but chiefly to see that any treasures discovered were not sent to Sweden. Hedin overcame this difficulty by dropping off the Chinese at intervals and putting them "in charge of" meteorological "stations." This flattering honour pleased them and he proceeded without further supervision by the Chinese government men. Hedin seems to have been a very curious character, backed financially by some of his countrymen and distrusted and detested by others. He was known as a discoverer of ancient ruins and long unused trade routes, and even claimed to have re-discovered the old Silk Road of Marco Polo, said to have been forgotten by modern Chinese. Dr. Fortuyn records in his diary: "This year Sven Hedin is going to explore extensively the same area as Black and Andersson and has promised to lend them all his topographical and other data, in other words the maps of the region." Roy Chapman Andrews was an experienced traveller as we know and had the reputation of being the organizer of such carefully planned expeditions that they could always be considered successful even if the "finds" were not spectacular. He maintained that wild adventures and narrow escapes were evidence of poor preparation. This characteristic of his appealed strongly to Black. But it was thought in some quarters that these two adventurers, Hedin and Andrews, never gave their full support and help to the scientific group to which Andersson and Black and others belonged. Black's memo evidently impressed Dr. Houghton for, a few days after Black sailed for Canada, he wrote to Dr. Pearce asking that a fellowship grant of $1500 be given to Black with which to carry out his plans while on leave. Even the costly estimate of the Central Asian expedition seemed to present no difficulties. Houghton ended his letter: "Dr. Andersson and Dr. Black should have an opportunity of working out detailed plans for the proposed extensive expedition

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which, in the light of recent findings in North China, promises to be of significant scientific value." Before setting out for the Western world, Black asked permission of Dr. Wong Wen-hao to take the fossilized molar with him to show the scientists in America and Europe and to have casts made of it in England. Black's confident departure with one small fossilized molar needs some elucidation, however inadequate. The question arises why was he convinced that he had identified a new genus of primitive man by the discovery of this molar? As an anatomist he had studied the morphology of man and ape, the latter being our nearest relation physically in both ancient and modern times. The teeth and skulls of the two species are important and show marked relationships and differences. The ape's teeth are all large and the canines are noticeably pointed, interlocking with those in the lower jaw, and there is a distinctive gap between these and the front incisors. With such teeth the ape is able to eat rough fruit and vegetables and to use them as levers for pulling and tearing vegetation. On the other hand man possesses smaller and more evenly level teeth, the molars being multicuspids. This allows a swinging motion of the jaws in eating. Man being the only creature capable of making tools, he depends on his teeth for mastication, rather than for gathering and cutting up his food. Schlosser, more than fifty years before, had recognized his specimen as human, but was unable to say to what geological period it belonged. Black, from evidence at Chou-K'ou-tien, could place his as not later than Upper Pleistocene and not earlier than the Lower Pleistocene. In an article in Nature written in 1927, he stated: "The newly discovered specimen displays in the details of its morphology a number of interesting and unique characters, sufficient, it is believed, to justify the proposal of a new hominid genus Sinanthmpus, to be represented by this material." He enlarged on this subject in his final report known as "Fossil Man in China" (1933) when further discoveries fully justified his earlier claim. One of Black's friends, Dr. Heinrich Neckles, a physiologist in the Peking Union Medical College, writing in 1960, throws an amusing sidelight on the affair of the tooth. Both of us worked late hours and Black used to come to my office or ask me to come to his to have a cup of tea at midnight. He was thin,

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wiry and of boundless energy; he had a fine English sense of humour; he was an optimist and a true humanist. One night he came to my office very excited, to show the precious tooth of homo pekinensis. He wanted me to advise him about the safest method to take the invaluable find to England (where he was going shortly) safe against loss or theft. I suggested a brass capsule with a screw closure and a ring at the top, with a strong ribbon through it, so he could wear it around his neck. We had a good Chinese mechanic in the Physiology Department who made a very nice capsule for him and he was as happy as a little boy.

This became a famous gadget although it is generally described as being on his watch chain at least when he travelled. Unfortunately, no trace of it was found after his death. In December 1927, Dr. Fortuyn moved into Black's room in preparation for taking over his duties as acting head of the department while Black was away on furlough. The entry in his diary says: Everything should be arranged before he goes and on top of this there is a lecture by Black which I should very much like to hear. It is to be at a meeting of the Geological Society on a tooth of Sinanthropus pekinensis. . . . Tomorrow very early Black goes to Canada, the U.S.A., and Europe, to return in ten to twelve months. I shall be acting head probably much longer as Black intends to go on an expedition for three years on his return. It is a great responsibility to be director of this beautiful department, with a staff of six scientists and twelve employees. DECEMBER 8, 1927. Black has gone, leaving a notable void. We shall always miss his vivacious cheerfulness and his enthusiasm of the right kind. Personally I shall miss Black very much. I don't think that anyone has done more for me as a scientist than he.

Black's idea of furlough in 1928 was far from being a period of rest. After a joyful reunion with his wife and two children in Toronto (a daughter had been born to the Blacks in Peking in 1925), whose hurried departure from Peking in April 1927 had given him so much anxiety, he settled down to long hours of work at the University. An apartment on St. George Street had been secured which meant only a short and pleasant walk through the campus to reach the medical building. He had brought with him the nearly completed work entitled "A Study of Kansu and Honan Aeneolithic Skulls and Specimens from Later Kansu Prehistoric Sites in Comparison with North China and Other Recent Crania." With the help of his two

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friends, Dr. J. G. Fitzgerald and Dr. R. D. Defries, he was able to borrow the necessary Marchant calculating machine not available in Peking. It is certain, too, that he had long talks with his friend, Dr. J. Playfair McMurrich, who had tried so hard to lure him back in 1922 to Toronto to work under him in the Anatomy Department. Unfortunately, most of the men who might have described his temporary return to his university have today passed from the scene. Black's reputation as a rising anatomist and anthropologist was well known in Europe as well as in China, but in Canada he was completely unheralded, even among his former classmates. A contemporary, looking back thirty years, felt that Black was not given the welcome he deserved.3 On one occasion he was asked to speak to the members of the Royal Canadian Institute, a scientific society that had been in existence since 1849. He chose as his subject "Man's Origin from the Standpoint of Zoogeography." The lecture took place in Convocation Hall and the audience was composed chiefly of university professors and the old guard of scientifically minded laymen, some of whom pronounced Black's performance unimpressive. It was perhaps natural that a man of his modest nature, failing to find response to his enthusiasm, should play down his success rather than appear boastful. He had, it is true, only one small fossilized molar on which to base a momentous claim and was a fluent speaker only in a congenial atmosphere. But there were younger men in the Anatomy Department of the Medical School who were eager to hear about his work in Peking Union Medical College. One story told in the laboratory has come down in history. He was asked if, in China, he found it hard to get cadavers for dissection. He admitted that there were difficulties, since Chinese of all ranks of society worshipped their ancestors and were unwilling to have them used in this way. At length someone suggested that he apply to the governor of the local prison for help. In due course three bodies arrived but they were headless. It was tactfully pointed out to the governor that they were not satisfactory in this state, so when the next lot came they were on their own feet, bearing a note "Kill them any way you like." This gruesome story is the only one remembered about these relaxed and intimate meetings so much enjoyed by Black and his audience. 3. Dr. Frank W. Walker's remark to the author.

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As one of his friends put it, "Speaking informally to small groups, he would let himself go and hold his listeners spellbound." There is no hint in the record that Black felt the chilly reception towards his work in his own university, although he numbered among his devoted friends the most famous anthropologists in the world and was himself laying the foundation of an institute for pooling knowledge of their discoveries. The lack of interest in Canada in prehistory was known to him. Neither anthropology nor archaeology was on the University of Toronto curriculum until 1925. One authority has written: "The sins of anthropological omissions are all too evident in Canada. . . . The study of man has lagged behind the study of physical sciences everywhere. . . . Generally speaking Canadians have been [up to 1930] negligent in respect to this work [anthropology]."4 It may have appeared preposterous to his University of Toronto friends that a man whose undergraduate record was not distinguished should now claim to have identified a new genus of man on earth. This attitude had perhaps been foreseen by Black. It was not until 1930, when his acclaim was world-wide, that he was able to joke about the inadvertent way in which his Alma Mater elected to honour him on another occasion. While on leave Black heard that a definite change had been made in the status of the parent body of the Peking Union Medical College. The China Medical Board of the Rockefeller Foundation now became the China Medical Board Incorporated. The College, as reported above, was transferred to this new Board with a capital grant of $12,000,000 but for special work not immediately related to the conduct of the College further funds were available at the discretion of the directors of the Rockefeller Foundation. Had Black not felt complete confidence in his employers this might have given him some anxiety. As it turned out grants for research activities could now be given to projects taking place outside the College although those taking part in them had to be members of the staff. In January 1928, while in Toronto, Black had a letter from Miss Eggleston of the China Medical Board saying: "Here is good news to welcome you home." A resolution had been passed by the trustees releasing him from teaching duties for the period of three years from 1929 for field service with the Central Asian expedition. 4. T. F. Mcllwtaith, Royal Canadian Institute Centennial, 1849-1949 (Toronto, 1949), pp. 11-12.

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This was a relief from anxiety and he could now give his attention to plans for a round of visits to scientists in the United States and Europe. By April he was off with his one small piece of evidence of early man in its capsule. He had many old friends to see and at the annual meeting of the American Association of Anatomists at Ann Arbor he had to face criticism from scholars who felt he was premature in his belief that he had found evidence of the primates in China. Dr. Elliot Smith, writing of this period, said: "It had no other effect upon him, beyond awaking his sympathies for anthropologists who are unfairly criticized and to make him redouble his efforts to establish the proof of his claim." In Baltimore he again met Dr. Barker with whom there was not only the professional bond but the common love of the charms of Go Home Bay. He looked forward keenly to talking with Ales Hrdliîka in Washington. Here was a man who had been in China and on whose sympathies he could count. They met at the Smithsonian, and Black was prepared for eager and enthusiastic questioning. What was his annoyance to be told that Hrdlifka preferred to take him and his wife for a drive round Washington! Black refused to go. Primates first, he declared, and then, if there was time to spare, a drive. Matthew and Cowdry were first on his list in New York, for, had it not been for these two, his life might have taken a less eventful and congenial turn. But on his arrival he found Matthew had left for a new post in the University of California. Early in June 1928, Black sailed for England, where in London he had a chance to talk freely with Sir Arthur Keith and Professor G. Elliot Smith, the latter now at the height of his career at University College, London. Here also he had an opportunity to discuss with Dr. Karl Pearson his plan for a standardized programme of anthropological work, and in the British Museum he met the Preparator, Mr. Barlow, and arranged with him to make casts of the Chou-K'ou-tien molars which could be available to all workers. After London came the rest of Europe with its scholars of many nationalities; these he could now meet on a more equal footing. But his first and most eagerly anticipated visit was to Stockholm and his old colleague Andersson, with whom he was to discuss in detail their expedition plans and final arrangements for their departure for Central Asia arranged at the meeting with the Crown Prince of Sweden

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in Peking earlier. What was his dismay on arrival to be told that Sven Hedin had returned unexpectedly to Stockholm and had successfully raised funds to keep his own expedition for an indefinite period in Chinese Turkestan! According to the original understanding in 1926 with Hedin, the latter was to complete his work in 1928 and, in return for assistance which Black and Andersson had rendered him, was to provide them with information on conditions and localities so that there would be no duplication of the work of the two expeditions. The move to raise independent funds was, as Black knew, the death blow to their plans. It meant the cancellation of the original agreement of October 26, 1926, since the Swedish government would not support two expeditions, and the other parties in the joint scheme, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Geological Survey of China, could not be expected to bear the entire cost of the undertaking. Judging by the evidence, this act of Hedin's appears to have been a shocking breach of faith with Andersson and Black. Those in power in Sweden, however, seemed helplessly swayed by Hedin. Although Black must have been deeply disappointed, his report to Roger Greene was restrained and gave merely the facts. Once more he set out on the rounds of the laboratories and museums of continental Europe. Perhaps as a personality, Black was most interested in Ramon y Cajal, the neurologist and histologist, in Madrid. Dr. Fortuyn had worked under him and was so much impressed by his scholarship and his efforts to improve conditions in Spain that he carried away a picture of him, under which Cajal had written, "the problem of Spain is a problem of culture . . . something should be done to prevent so many talents being lost by ignorance; so many rivers, as it were, being lost in the sea." Dr. Fortuyn felt this was even truer of China. Much had been done for the country, but, through lack of co-operation of the war lords and the peasants alike, "the rivers were lost in the sea." Black had been long enough in China to understand this. A farewell visit to Kappers and Bolk in Amsterdam completed his trip and in October 1928 he sailed for China. Stimulated by contacts with these scientists and his friendly relations with those in England, he was ready to rejoin his smaller circle in Peking with news of research in the Western world. While Black was away on leave, Fortuyn not only had to be

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responsible for the work in the Anatomy Department, but he was also controller of the funds of the Rockefeller Foundation for the workers at the excavations at Chou-K'ou-tien. In this capacity he took the short journey to the Western Hills. His account of the vicissitudes of travel encountered in the twenty-five miles was written at the time and gives a vivid picture of the journey and of the routine of the workers. OCTOBER 9, 1928. I made a remarkable trip. As I have written before, I have, during Black's absence, the administration of the money which the Rockefeller Foundation has given for the excavations in ChouK'ou-tien in search of fossils. Last weekend I went there for the first time. The distance between Peking and Chou-K'ou-tien is about twenty-five miles and in normal times this could be quickly covered by train. But now the timetable of the train is very uncertain and many people are obliged to sit on the roof of the cars (where the conductor also comes to punch the tickets). This looked too risky for me. So I first went by an automobile of the Peking Union Medical College to Marco Polo Bridge, about ten miles away, and this took an hour and a half. As the automobile could not have gone much further I changed to rickshas. I was fortunate in having Dr. Bert Anderson, our oral surgeon, for company. Because we would stay away for a night, we had bedding and food and also Wang, our number one boy, with us. All this required four rickshas and one donkey. This caravan needed seven hours and a half to reach Chou-K'ou-tien. The coolies who pushed our rickshas and who would return with us next day received four dollars each, comparatively speaking rather much. Of course, the coolies did not run all the time. We walked a great deal, sometimes for a whole hour, especially when the hills were too steep or when we wished to get warm. For the weather was not so good and the next day there was even a fierce gale from the north. And, of course, we stopped for lunch, first for the coolies in an inn in a village, and then for us in a field. Such ricksha coolies never have money to buy food on the day before. So before we started they only bought some cigarettes to subdue the feeling of being hungry and even such a cigarette they smoked together, first one the first half and then the other the rest. Their midday meal consisted of tea and dumplings baked in oil. But, in the evening, when we had reached our destination, they each demanded one dollar in advance and so they will have had a good meal. The second day they ran much better than the first: but then they were going home. We had left at seven o'clock in the morning and were in ChouK'ou-tien at four o'clock. We went in an arch around the hills and had to cross two brooks and one small river which was easily done

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on the back of a donkey. We went around one city, Fang Shan Tien, which we passed when returning next day. In Chou-K'ou-tien we went first to the excavations. It is a limestone cave with a wide fissure filled with another kind of rock and in this are lying thousands of bones of extinct animals, all fossilized and all mixed. Bones of mouse, fox, deer, swine, elephant and rhinoceros are found but they are often broken and never complete skeletons. On the spot there is not much to be seen. This comes later when in the laboratory the fossils have been freed from the rock. Collecting the fossils goes on pretty casually. Regularly at six o'clock at night dynamite explosions, one of which we witnessed, prepare the mountain and next day about thirty labourers loosen great pieces of rock with pick axes. The greater pieces are transported to Peking, the smaller one are put through a sieve and sorted locally. The aim of these excavations is to find fossil human remains. Some years ago two teeth were found and last year one (as I wrote you before). This year (but please don't tell the newspapers), we have been more lucky. About twelve teeth, a portion of a jaw, a carpal bone and part of a skull have been found, probably belonging to an extinct human species, perhaps to an unknown ape. To transport this material to the safe in the Peking Union Medical College was the purpose of my trip. I can never understand why so many bones are found in one spot. The explanation in this case might be that the fissure in the mountain acted as a natural trap for animals. All the animals, after having fallen down, could not escape any more, and their skeletons were heaped up. In this way also a boy might have fallen down for the teeth are of a dentition which is still in the process of being shed. At the site of the excavations we met Dr. Bohlin who is in charge of the excavations, Dr. C. C. Young and Mr. Pei, both Chinese palaeontologists. All of them live in a village in a very primitive Chinese House. Just now Mrs. Bohlin was there too. We passed the night in their house because this was more pleasant than to stay in a temple, but my camp bed had to be put up in the dining-room. During the evening we all had a very pleasant talk together. Next day we had to leave early to reach Peking.

Black's return was eagerly awaited by the field staff. They had much to show him this time and were anxious to discuss with him their plans for further excavations.

CHAPTER

EIGHT

Sinanthroyus yckincnsis

IT HAD BEEN, of course, a bitter disappointment to Black to be unable to go on with preparations for the mid-Asian expedition. He had hoped to achieve one of the ambitions of his life when he led his own party into the field on a major exploration. On his return to China, however, he found there were two factors to compensate for the cancellation of this project. In the first place the political conditions were growing worse. Chiang Kai-shek still ruthlessly waged war on the Communist faction, which, in spite of this, continued to set up small soviets in remote districts, making travel dangerous. On the happier side, the results of the field work at the caves were encouraging. Enough hominid and other material had been found during the year to warrant the continuation of the excavations if funds were forthcoming to support it. By December Black was able to write a letter to Sir Arthur Keith giving him in advance detailed news of the finds during the year: PEKING, December 5th, 1928 Our field expedition this year at Chou-K'ou-tien suffered the loss of nearly three months good field weather, on account of the disturbed state of the country, and as a result the site is still far from exhausted. To make up for the lost time during the summer, Dr. Bohlin and Mr. Pei stayed in the field from the end of August till November 25th when the winter's snow and ice drove them out. It would seem that there is a certain magic about the last few days of the season's work for again two days before it ended Bohlin found the right half of the lower jaw of Sinanthropus with the three permanent molars in situ and perfectly preserved sockets

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of Pml Pm2, C and the distal half of that of I 2. The ascending ramus is missing but sufficient of the symphyseal region remains to demonstrate its ape-like character—if it were not for the molars in situ it would have been difficult to determine its hominid status. So the foundation of a new genus on the strength of dental characters has been justified I am thankful to say! In addition to this specimen and several other teeth which come from close to the site where the previous finds were made we have a score and more of teeth (deciduous, unerupted permanent and fully formed permanent), a number of jaw and skull fragments and what looks to be the better part of an entire adult skull (badly fragmented and crushed but possibly it can be restored). Many of these specimens are imbedded in the hardest travertine which had to be blasted out so their preparation will be like the work Buxton had to do on the Gibraltar specimen. There is so much more material still in field wrappings of paper and plaster that I cannot even guess how much human stuff we have besides 400 boxes of other fossils. These latter human specimens came from a considerably higher level but associated with the same fauna (extinct horse, hyena, bear, rhinoceros and elephant) and though of a different colour are just as highly fossilized and from superficial examination of as archaic morphology as Sinanthropus. It is certainly a thrilling termination of our second year in the field and these finds will I think enable me to procure more money for a further three-year period of work in North China. I am sorry to say all this information cannot yet be published but I knew how deeply interested you would be so I am writing to you and Professor Elliot Smith quite unofficially. I hope to have sufficient material prepared so that I can make a formal announcement at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of China at Shanghai in February and I shall at the same time prepare preliminary announcements to appear in Nature and Science. I have completed the formal arrangements with Barlow to have him manufacture for sale the cast and model of the molar tooth of Sinanthropus that I described last year. As soon as I hear from him I shall make arrangements to present copies of both cast and model to you but I expect it will be six months or more before he will be ready for distribution. By January 1929 he became much concerned about the future of the research work at Chou-K'ou-tien. The generous grant of the Rockefeller Foundation for two years work would come to an end in April and it must have taken courage to ask again for further funds. He was not lacking in this attribute when it was needed to further research work, although Miss Hempel commented: "Poor D.B. did not get much sleep after he had applied for monetary assistance from the Rockefeller Foundation through Roger Greene."

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To explain the situation to those in New York, Black had recourse to a detailed memorandum of conditions in China and the importance of keeping research active in order not to lose the immense success achieved in the past two years. He pointed out how fortunate it was that the workers at Chou-K'ou-tien had not been seriously molested by the reactionary faction now sweeping the country. There was no knowing, however, what would happen if the site was, even temporarily, abandoned. The importance of keeping the trained men at work was paramount to prevent them being pressed into the army or other work. The strong group of professional workers, both Chinese and Western, in charge of geological and palaeontological work were invaluable and might never again be available should the present government make it difficult for the Chinese and foreigners to work together. Black was determined to keep this co-operative endeavour a going concern. He added a private report on the desperate financial condition of the Geological Survey of China. Salaries were in arrears, and it was only kept from collapse through the help of certain private mining companies. Unless more financial aid was forthcoming, the Survey would not be able to carry on the important research waiting to be done. To forestall, if possible, these impending disasters and to advance the work, Black proposed the creation of a Cenozoic Research Laboratory. It would be a special department of the Geological Survey for the investigation in the field and in the laboratory of Cenozoic geology and palaeontology throughout China in general and at Chou-K'ou-tien in particular. Black considered that the laboratory work should be carried on in the anatomical department of the Peking Union Medical College and that all the material investigated must remain in China. He felt that the research should gradually extend into all fields of Tertiary and Quarternary geology, including stratigraphy, palaeontology, physiography and prehistoric archaeology, as well as the anatomical work. If such an organization came into being, Black emphasized, it would break new ground in China. It was obvious that such a plan could not be carried out without a substantial grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. The memorandum was dispatched to New York early in January.

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The answer, Black knew, might be long reaching him. Nevertheless, he went ahead with his plans for the spring research work and the organization of the Cenozoic Research Laboratory. On January 21st he began a long letter to Sir Arthur Keith as an outlet for his anxious thoughts, but he held it for a month. By that time he was able to add a triumphant postscript: "I began a letter to you nearly a month ago—at a time when I was much depressed over the prospects of the future field work in North China. Things have turned out very differently than I then supposed possible. It's better to be born lucky than rich!" On April 5th Dr. Fortuyn recorded in his journal: "Today the news came that Dr. Black received in U.S. funds $80,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation for his further research for human fossils. Quite a bit!" Without delay the Cenozoic Research Laboratory came into being, with Dr. V. K. Ting and Dr. Davidson Black as honorary directors; Père Teilhard de Chardin, adviser and collaborator on animal fossils; Dr. C. C. Young, assistant director and palaeontologist; Dr. W. C. Pei, palaeontologist in charge of Chou-K'ou-tien field work; and Dr. M. M. Pien, assistant. The season of field work in 1929 opened under the most favourable auspices. Although Barbour was not on the permanent staff, he was frequently at work in the field as an invaluable consultant on problems of geology and physiography. Black's mind was now at rest, with ample funds for his field workers assured, and in May he prepared for a trip to Java to take part in the Fourth Pacific Science Congress. There he was to meet G. Elliot Smith, and Professor Wood Jones, too, had promised to join his old friends at this meeting. Happy at this prospect, Black wrote to another correspondent: "I am delighted to know that Wood Jones will be there for I love him dearly—his unorthodoxy is most stimulating to me and I find it in my heart to think of it as constructive—at least it has the saving grace of humour." At this conference Black read a paper on Sinanthr&pus -pekinensis and new material found at Chou-K'ou-tien in 1928. It was an honour but nevertheless a severe test of his confidence to present a fundamental question before such an august gathering. On his return to Peking, he wrote: "Elliot Smith's cordial backing after my presentation of the material at the conference made all the difference in the

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world to its reception there." It was only a year since his audience in Toronto had listened to him with frigid unenthusiasm. After the meeting Smith and Black took a busman's holiday to visit the famous Trinil site in Java where Eugène Dubois, the young Dutch-physician, had discovered relics of extremely early man. There was a similarity, up to a point, in the lives of Dubois and Black. Dubois, as a young assistant professor of anatomy and natural history at the University of Leiden, became obsessed with the idea of looking for primitive man in the East Indies. He gave up his post in Holland and secured a commission as an army surgeon whose duties would take him to Sumatra. There, his research, though unsuccessful, was so sincere that he was allowed to continue it in Java. In 1891, after three years of only minor finds to his credit, he at last discovered on the banks of the Solo River near Trinil a few ape-like fossilized teeth and a brain-pan, with a volume too large to make it that of an ape and too small for it to be that of a man. The next year at some distance from the skull he found a femur, or thigh-bone, possibly belonging to the same primitive creature. Dubois published a minute description of his discoveries in 1894 using the name Pithecanthropus, devised many years before by the German naturalist Haeckel for the hypothetical ape-man creature in the process of evolution, but to this Dubois added the descriptive word erectus (standing). When his finds were displayed and discussed at the International Zoological Conference in Leiden in 1896, a fierce controversy took place among the scientists. Out of a committee of nineteen experts, only seven thought Pithecanthropus could be considered a man. Dubois became depressed and even began to doubt his own claims, with the result that he withdrew from society and hid himself and his precious fossils in his home at Haarlem. Twenty-five years elapsed before he was persuaded to allow the skull to be taken to the museum at Leiden, there to be kept under lock and key; Java man was at last available to the scientific world. This much of the story was known to Black when he visited the site at Trinil. He was convinced of Dubois' sincerity and examined the site with interest and profound respect. A few years later the lives of these two men became linked as events unfolded. This pilgrimage to Java was of surpassing interest to Smith and Black who had been on the track of early man since they first met in 1914. It seems to have been a meeting which they both looked back upon with

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intense pleasure and satisfaction. Only a few years later Elliot Smith dedicated a small book of his essays to Black with these words: "To Davidson Black, in whose genial society the author first visited the three sites (Piltdown, Java and Peking) with which this book is concerned." Black tried to persuade Smidi to return to Peking with him to see the Chou-K'ou-tien site and to continue his journey homeward by the Trans-Siberian Railway, but Smith had other commitments. It was fortunate, as it turned out, since the warring parties in North China had closed traffic by this route. In the autumn of 1929 Black made frequent trips to Chou-K'ou-tien where the work was now in full swing after the late summer rains. His enthusiasm for the main objective lent a lively interest to every detail of manual work, for the workers in the field as well as for those in the laboratory. This was the key to his achievement. The whole enterprise was conceived on a grand scale and never abandoned even when hope was long deferred. For three years it was expected that larger parts of Sinanthropus would be discovered, and news of more finds was eagerly awaited by geologists and anatomists in Europe and America, many of whom took the long journey to Peking. Still only large and small fragments of jaw bones and teeth had been unearthed. By late 1929 the number of visitors had fallen off and interest had gradually dininished. There remained in Peking only the few staunch scientists and the remotely curious international population. Still faithful to the enterprise was Teilhard de Chardin, who could never remain long away, although he had lately spent some time exploring in Abyssinia and Italian Somaliland. George Barbour, too, returned frequently to help with advice between his trips to other parts of northern China seeking likely geological formations where mammal fossils might be found. For two full seasons the work under W. C. Pei had been concentrated with relentless vigour at the same place, known in archaeological terms as "Locality I." The task became more difficult as the excavations deepened and the full baskets of crushed limestone fragments were carried by the host of labourers to the top of the opening, there to be examined briefly by the scientists. The most encouraging aspect as the work proceeded was the evidence that rock formation began to show two funnel-like features which might lead to caves— and caves to the archaeologists held out hope. But as the season drew

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to a close it was evident that only one funnel could be explored and W. C. Pei alone undertook this exceedingly difficult piece of work. It seems only fair to allow the tale of the ultimate triumph to be told by him. He did this with great clarity in a modest recital of the work accomplished in the last few weeks of 1929. The small pamphlet is called "An Account of the Discovery of an Adult Sinanthropus Skull in the Chou-K'ou-tien Deposit."1 In continuance of the work done on that site during the preceding two years, I went into the field in May 1929 and began further excavation of the cave deposit at Chou-K'ou-tien. I planned to concentrate my field work on an investigation of that part of the deposit known as the "Lower fissure" and extending the excavation of that area downward from the level reached in 1928 in order to reach the true bottom of the deposit if possible. The method of excavation in 1929 was the same as that of previous years but at the beginning of this year's work a reference point was established 19.6 meters below the highest part of the deposit from which to determine the bearings of all important finds. The area of the region to be excavated was approximately 16 meters long and 10 wide. During the first three weeks difficulty was encountered in penetrating the hard layer just below the level of the 1928 excavation which had earlier been considered as the bottom of the deposit. After removal of the hard layer and a couple of meters of relatively barren deposits a rich sandy layer was reached from which were recovered numerous well preserved skulls and skeletal parts of forms which had previously been represented by few and poorly preserved fragments. No Sinanthroipus remains were encountered in this layer. Towards the end of June a new Sinanthropus locus was encountered in the Lower fissure (Locus C in the Carnivore layer of the "northern Lower fissure"; cf. Teilhard and Young's report).2 From this locus a canine tooth, and subsequently during the next month, additional isolated teeth referable to the genus Sinanthro-pus were recovered. The onset of the summer rains put a stop to our field work for seven weeks during the months of August and September but on the twentysixth of the latter month field work was resumed. Work at this time was concentrated on the area of the northern Lower fissure, work on its southern part being stopped 14.6 meters below the Reference Point on account of the danger of blocks falling from the face of the main deposit. 1. Geological Society of China Bulletin, VIII, No. 3 (Peiping, 1929). See Black's bibliography, year 1929. 2. With Black, Geological Society of China Bulletin, V. See also Black's bibliography for the year 1927.

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Shortly after work was resumed a new Sinanthropus locus was encountered in the fourth layer of the northern Lower fissure (Locus D of Teilhard and Young's report). Again only isolated teeth referable to the genus were found in Locus D. By the close of November when the weather was daily becoming colder a depth of 22.6 meters below the Reference Point had been reached. The character of the material in the Lower fissure seemed then to indicate that its bottom could not be far off while its width had become much reduced and its fossil content poorer. In view of these circumstances and since ready access to the lower working could only be assured by further extensive quarrying, it was decided to bring the season's work to an early close. However, in spite of the bitter cold, the desire to know what were the lower layers of the deposit made me postpone that time as long as possible, and as a result during the last few days I found two caves almost at the southern extremity of the northern Lower fissure. One of these caves opens upward toward the southeast and the other horizontally to the northwest. These two caves may of course prove eventually to be connected but in the field I have designated them as Cave 2 and Cave 1 respectively. When the opening of Cave 2 was found I was only able to explore it with great difficulty, having to be let down its shaft by a long rope. Some Hyaena vertebrae were, however, recovered from this cave which yet remains to be investigated fully. Cave 1 is not so deep as Cave 2 and since it opened horizontally I was able to reach it without difficulty on November 29. On December 1st I began to remove the uppermost part of the accumulation filling the cave. At four o'clock next afternoon I encountered the almost complete skull of Sinanthropus. The specimen was imbedded partly in loose sands and partly in a hard matrix so that it was possible to extricate it with relative ease. On the morning of December 3, I sent letters by special messenger to Drs. W. H. Wong and C. C. Young giving the details of my discovery and at the same time telegraphed to Dr. Davidson Black. The skull with a large block of adherent matrix, together with a second travertine block containing a small fragment of the specimen, were each first wrapped with layers of Chinese cotton paper and afterwards with a heavy layer of coarse cloth impregnated with flour paste. The weather was so cold that these wrappings did not become dry even after three days in a comparatively warm room of our field headquarters. Since I was afraid to transport such fragile specimens in wet wrappings the blocks were further dried on the night of December 5 with the aid of three braziers. On December 6 I left Chou-K'ou-tien with the Sinanthropus specimen and deposited it safely in the Cenozoic Laboratory by noon of the same day.

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But the author of this text does not tell all. He wrapped the precious burden with infinite care, put it in the basket of his bicycle and himself rode with it the twenty-five miles to the laboratory of Davidson Black. An eye witness of his arrival said: "Pei's face was shining with pride and joy." In the intense excitement of possessing at last the proof of his long-cherished theory Black did not hesitate to give Pei the full credit for its discovery. And he wrote : "It is entirely due to his skill and devotion that this bulky material with its unique and fragile contents reached the Cenozoic Laboratory without loss of a single fragment." Towards the end of December a meeting was organized at the Geological Survey to formally announce the discovery, and to make the presentation of a medal, given to Black by his old friend, Amadeus W. Grabau. Black vehemently protested that the medal should bear Pei's name as well as his own. This was not allowed but a second medal was struck and presented to Weng Chung Pei. Black was devoted to his friends and it must have added much to his happiness that at this crowning period of his life several of his close companions were near—Pierre de Teilhard, George Barbour, Paul Stevenson, and the wise and kindly Roger Greene of the Peking Union Medical College. Dr. Houghton and Dr. Fortuyn were on leave of absence, but Black did not need to be assured of their pleasure at his triumph. On December 29th what was possibly the first newspaper announcement in Peking appeared in the Peking Leader. A rough draft of this article has been miraculously preserved. It is a pencilled account of the finding of the skull written on cheap copy paper, now brown and fragile with age—a poignant relic cherished for thirty years by the writer, George Barbour. In a letter to this biographer in 1959, Barbour says: "This morning I came on an historic document roughly folded into my copy of Boule's book on fossil man, the first draft of some pages I wrote for the Peking Leader. . . . In a way it gives Black's story a curious vividness to come on this which I have not looked at since that memorable week." The hastily written text reads: The importance to science of the most recently of the so-called "Peking Man" (Sinanthropus be estimated. Following my articles which have columns and the announcement made at the

discovered fossil remains pekinensis) can hardly been appearing in these special meeting of the

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Geological Society of China in Peking on December 28th (1929), this report is of special significance. The meeting was called to hear the report of the finding of a skull, the study of which will give an answer to many of the questions as to the identity of the owner of the teeth and jaws. Since the successive reports over several years of the discovery of teeth and skull parts, speculation has been rife as to the possible relationship of their former owners. Of the Chinese geologist who has been in charge of all the excavations of the last two years full praise must be given. One has to have visited the locality to appreciate his achievement. . . . The accounts in numerous publications of the finding of the first skull made very little, if any, mention of the part played by the Peking Union Medical College. The following gracious letter written by Roger Greene, when acting director of the College in the absence of Dr. Houghton, to the Secretary of the China Medical Board in New York, Margery K. Eggleston, shows the generous attitude of that body: I send herewith clipping from the Peking Leader for December 29th, in duplicate, containing several articles about the discovery of a skull of Sinanthropus practically complete except for the face. On December 28th, the discovery was announced at a meeting of the Chinese Geological Society at the Geological Survey. The find was a thrilling one, even to a layman like myself, and it has naturally aroused great popular interest. You will observe that the Peiping Union Medical College does not figure very largely in the publicity. This is as it should be, and tends to create the kind of good feeling necessary for the continuation of the work under the best conditions. We can rest satisfied with the knowledge that the scientists of the world who are interested in this particular subject will give the College all the credit that is due, and nothing can detract from the credit due to Dr. Black personally. We are very grateful to the Rockefeller Foundation for the generous support which has made this astonishing result possible. In the meantime the news reached New York in a curiously garbled fashion. An unsigned article appeared on December 17, 1929, in the New York Herald Tribune, on the discovery of the first skull at Chou-K'ou-tien. It is a misleading account, beginning with the statement: "The discovery of the deposits at Chou-K'ou-tien, China, of ten skeletons and one skull supposedly of extremely interesting prehuman species described by Dr. J. G. Andersson and Dr. Davidson Black under the name Sinanthropus pekinensis. . . ."

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Much has been written on this great event since it was first announced, but quotations have seldom, if ever, been made from Black's own publications. Before the year 1929 had passed into history, Black had written his "Preliminary Notice on the Discovery of an Adult Sinanthropus Skull at Chou-K'ou-tien," for the Cenozoic, Laboratory of the Geological Survey, complete with nine photographic plates showing the fossilized bone as it emerged from the casing of travertine. No other relic of early man has been so immediately and thoroughly recorded as this first skull of Sinanthropus pekinensis.

CHAPTER

NINE

Honours

"FORTUNE favours the prepared mind," wrote Pasteur. And, in 1945, Sir Alexander Fleming, another famous penetrator into the unknown, enlarged on this pregnant dictum when he spoke at Harvard: "Never neglect an extraordinary appearance or happening," he said. "It may be the clue provided by fate to lead you to some important advance. . . . We must master all the technicalities of our craft. Pasteur's off-repeated saying is undoubtedly true, for the unprepared mind cannot see the outstretched hand of opportunity."1 Black's entire life had been a startling example of the truth of this argument. From this time on, for the few short years that were left to him, he reaped many rewards, tangible and intangible, for his labours. Days and nights were all too short for the exacting tasks he undertook. Always industrious, he was now almost overpowered with work. A remark to a friend in the laboratory one day was typical —"Why, man, just think of being paid for doing the one job in the whole world you've always wanted to do!" By January 1930 he had published two reports on the skull while still working on the delicate task of freeing it from its shrouding of travertine. He did not delegate the drudgery of this work to others— indeed, he did not consider it drudgery. His love for his work made every detail of paramount importance. Even the day-to-day records of progress he made himself. Eager to share his good luck with others, 1. André Maurois, The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming, Discoverer of Penicillin (London, 1959).

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he kept up a wide correspondence with scientific friends throughout the world. Miss Hempel was caught up in the contagious excitement and says: "For weeks and months we did nothing but write letters, and then for weeks and months we hardly looked at the mail piled high on his desk." One of these letters we know was opened, read and answered by Black. It was written by Dr. Eugène Dubois whose discovery in 1891 of Java Man, or Pithecanthropus erectus, had aroused Black's interest as early as 1914. It is probable that he prized this letter greatly since both men had experienced public scepticism and there was a distinct kinship in their discoveries. Black's reply was found by Dr. Fortuyn in 1961 in the mass of Dubois' papers in the Museum of Natural History in Leiden. April 3, 1930 PROFESSOR EUGENE DUBOIS, ZIJLWEG 65, HAARLEM, HOLLAND. DEAR PROFESSOR DUBOIS: Thank you ever so much for your kind letter of last February which reached me two weeks ago. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your cordial good wishes and it is indeed a pleasure to be able to send you in this letter copies of the first photographs to be made of the new Sinanthropus skull after its exterior has been freed from travertine. I also enclose a brief summary of my interim report given last week at the Annual Meetings of the Geological Society of China. The report itself, together with reproductions of these six photographs, is now in press. I am also sending you under separate cover three reprints of preliminary papers on the Chou-K ou-tien region and on Sinanthropus. From the latter you will see that now there can be no question of the geological age of the deposit. It will be two or three months yet before my final report on the skull can be prepared since its whole interior must be freed from travertine before the bones of the vault can be replaced in their exact natural relations. The more I study this specimen, the more clearly it becomes evident that here we have a form sufficiently generalized in character to be not far removed from the type from which Neanderthal and modern types were both derived. Again thanking you most heartily for your congratulations and good wishes. . . . With this letter Dr. Fortuyn found a draft of another in Dubois' handwriting dated three years later, but it is not certain whether

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it was ever sent, since the "Prix Hollandais" referred to does not appear among Black's list of honours. It was a generous gesture on the part of one who sometimes is blamed for doubting Black's claims. Haarlem, Holland March 28, 1933

DEAR PROFESSOR DAVIDSON BLACK:

Perhaps you do not know that this year again a "Prix Hollandais" is to be awarded, by the "Institut international d'Anthropologie," on which die author submits his work to the judgement of an international jury from die "Institut". Being a member of that jury, it may be permitted to me to ask you to send your works on die Sinanthropus to the Secretary (Secretaire Général) of die "Institut international d'Anthropologie", 15 rue de l'Ecole de Médecine, Paris (VIe), M. le Professeur Dr. G. Papillault. In my opinion yours is die most important achievement in Anthropology during the last cycle of the "Prix Hollandais." The former prize-winner was Fadier Teilhard de Chardin. With Kind Regards, EUG. DUBOIS

Dubois, we know, was subject to fits of depression and was wont to wididraw from contact with die scientific world, so that his letters are scarce. In 1933 he wrote to Dr. Fortuyn on the status of Sinanthr&pus: It is a great pleasure to me that your colleague in China, Davidson Black, continues to separate Sinanthropus from Pithecanthropus. I never believed that those two were closely related in any respect. In my opinion the endocranial cast has made the separation absolute. (Translated from die Dutch by Dr. Fortuyn.) Time and change sometimes bring together strange bedfellows. Sinanthropus and Pithecanthropus, after being the principals in many an anthropological duel, now lie peacefully side by side in at least one museum, as examples of the same phase of hominid evolution.2 Black, for all his eagerness, was not ambitious for himself. In a relaxed and humorous vein he wrote to Dr. Pearce on the subject: Yes, Sinanthropus is growing like a bally weed. I never realized how great an advertising medium primitive man (or woman) was till this skull turned up. Now everybody is crowding round to gaze that can get the 2. Physical Anthropology display, University of Toronto.

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least excuse to do so and it gets embarrassing at times. Being front page stuff is a new sensation and encourages a guarded manner of speech! The work of unmasking the villain or of extracting Sinanthropus from his clinging hard matrix progresses slowly and I am now trying to devise a vacuum cleaner effect to keep from premature silicosis. I wish you could see the halo of dust after fifteen minutes of grinding with a dental carborundum point under an airblast—talcum or flour isn't in it with this.

His complaint to a visitor to his laboratory was not the disadvantage of breathing dust but that his spectacles were so thickly covered that he could not see properly. Later a large exhaust pipe was fitted into the wall of Black's laboratory which sucked out the dust as he drilled. This pleased both Black and his wife and made them breathe easier, the former literally and the latter indirectly. Mrs. Black remarked: "Before the pipe was installed, Dyo arrived home every night looking as if he had spent the day in a coal mine. I couldn't recognize him when he came in the door." After the skull was completely freed of its matrix, Black undertook the delicate task of making a master cast of it from which copies could be taken for distribution to museums around the world. It was one of these perfect models, coloured to the exact shade of the original, that the author of this biography saw in the Smithsonian Institution in 1940. It was displayed in its own glass case in a conspicuously honoured place. Could it have been Black's formerly doubting friend HrdliSka who placed it there? Were it not for the vivid recollection of Miss Hempel, it would be impossible to reconstruct the work accomplished in the laboratory at this period. She made a detailed catalogue of the casts of every tooth and bone fragment and on each was a number which corresponded with the original fossil that was left in China. Harvard University and the American Museum of Natural History and possibly other places received all the casts and all the publications. The winter months of 1930 were spent by the staff of the Cenozoic Research Laboratory on the work of sorting and examining the quantities of fossil-bearing limestone fragments accumulated during the summer. But by April they were off again to the excavations, eager to find what lay beneath the spot where the skull cap had been found. This time they went to work with a feeling of security they had never before had. The property containing the site had become by purchase the possession of the Geological Survey, to be preserved for science

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forever. This news must have been a great relief to those who had worked so faithfully since Andersson and Zdansky made their first brave efforts there surrounded by hostile peasants. Professor J. Tuzo Wilson in his book One Chinese Moon (Toronto, 1960) considers that under the Communists this immunity to outside interference still holds good. When he was touring China in 1959 as President of the International Geophysical Year, he was taken by his guide to the site where Peking Man was found. He says he was shown three new buildings of grey brick, one story high, on the hillside nearby. "We went inside and sat at a long table in a waiting-room which also contained a small library. On the shelves were bound copies of the original reports by Dr. Davidson Black." By July, 1930, specimens of great interest were coming from the new excavations and Black was able to report these to the Geological Survey of China. They included five Sinanthmpus teeth, and a second Sinanthro-pus skull, comprising the greater part of the vault and a part of the base. Certain slight but significant details indicated a difference of sex, the second Sinanthr&pus being possibly a young adult male. Black as usual found time to write to Keith following the announcement of the new finds : Peking 31st July, 1930 Just a line of greeting to go with the new announcement—it's great stuff we're getting! The summer rains have stopped work at Chou-K'outien and Pei must go with Roy Chapman Andrews to Mongolia for three weeks, but will be back to begin again at CKT when the rains are over. All goes well—Teilhard and Young are back and got a lot of good stuff done. I am devoting all my time to the completion of the casts and final photos of the first skull—I have more individual casts and proper photographs etc. of each separate bone and next week will begin putting all together for the final casts and photos—a busy life! From time to time fragments of charred or partly calcined animal bones had been found in the excavated material which suggested the use of fire at some period. But it was not until the next season that layers of blackened deposits were discovered at the same level that had yielded the Sinanthroyus skull. Specimens of this significant material were analysed in Peking by the pharmacology department and carbon was suspected. But to get further proof Teilhard de

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Chardin took with him to Paris a sufficient quantity to be able to compare it with similar deposits found in prehistoric sites in Europe. The results of the latest tests also proved that there had been intentional fires in the depth of the caves. It is today acknowledged that these ashes are the first solid evidence of the use of fire in human history. In the debris on the floor of the cave the workers found many crudely chipped stone pieces, recognized by the archaeologists as possibly human artifacts. These were not all fashioned from white quartz such as those Andersson had found at the top of the quarry in 1921, but included those of green stone, vein and crystal quartz, limestone and coarse chert. Among these were a few specimens of incised bone fragments. In "Fossil Man in China" (1933) Black describes in detail many of these crude implements found in the welter of minor chips in an area of 160 square yards. Careful drawings were made to illustrate the text. The history of stone workings in China was practically unknown in 1929 and even today little has been added to the record. Black knew he was breaking new ground and was not entirely content to rely on his own answers or on the opinion of his co-workers. But with the arrival in Peking of the venerable and versatile Abbé Henri Breuil he felt he had a colleague of international fame. For many years this man had been on the trail of the artifacts wrought by primitive man and was known as "the father of cave research." Black took him to the caves at Chou-K'ou-tien. The trip is recorded in an amusing movie, in which the Abbé is seen seated on the rough ground trying his skill at making edged tools and scrapers as he thought his remote ancestors had done, perhaps on the same spot. He found man had lost some of his skill in the intervening millennia! There were many problems that Black, Teilhard and Pei could discuss with Breuil, among them the fact that few hominid bones other than teeth and skull parts had come to light; the evidences of fire; the occasional bits of quartz (a geological specimen not natural to the district); and splinters of bone which showed signs of hand work. Although he could not give the final word on all these questions Abbé Breuil's experience and his judicial mind provided the atmosphere of a clearing house. It was natural that Elliot Smith should journey to Peking to share

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with his protégé of Manchester days the triumphant result of his years of work. He arrived in September 1930 and Black wrote happily to Miss Eggleston in New York of the event: "It was a delightful and exciting visit. We worked Elliot Smith night and day, but he stood up to it nobly and thrived on it. He is certainly a most charming chap and entered into the spirit of it wholeheartedly, as is his wont." The "work" included gaiety too—Peking was not slow to plan numerous parties for the Blacks' distinguished guest. Smith, of course, was anxious to go to Chou-K'ou-tien, a rough and at times hazardous trip along roads not much wider than a donkey track through the rocks, and this in a Model T Ford. At times the car had to stop to allow coolies to remove large pieces of rock from the path. Broad, shallow rivers en route were negotiated with much more ease than were the roads on dry land. The treeless and scabrous hills had a sinister aspect, seen from the flat country from which they rose. On this occasion the movie camera again recorded the scene. As the party approached the site, they could see dozens of labourers pounding at the rough limestone with picks and hammers. Many metres of the hillside had been thus hacked away, helped at times by mild charges of dynamite. All the rock and rubble thus dislodged was loaded into baskets, slung one on each end of a pole, and, as films taken by Black himself show, carried by coolies along sagging planks up the steep, winding path to the upper level, there to be examined by the archaeologists. The initial finding of so minute a thing as a tooth among such a welter of geological fragments and general confusion was, to say the least, amazing, and the hazards of the continued search for further evidence which had eventually resulted in the finding of Sinanthropus would have daunted any but a most dedicated palaeontologist. Smith was deeply moved by this experience. To make Elliot Smith's journey home a pleasant one, Black arranged that he should pay a visit to Dr. Henry Houghton who was spending some time on special work in the College of Medicine at Ames, Iowa. In an amusing and unrestrained letter to Houghton prompted by Smith's visit, Black tells among other things of the inadvertent way in which his own University of Toronto bestowed on him, in absentia, the honorary degree of Doctor of Science at the opening ceremonies of the new Banting Building in September, 1930.

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Peking December 27, 1930.

DEAREST HEINE: Your delightful Thanksgiving Day letter has just arrived and I am thrilled beyond words to know how much you enjoyed Grafton Elliot Smith—he is one of the most delightful chaps whose methods of work and play it has ever been my privilege to study and adrfiire. But he is Irish to the extent that a friend is always spoken of in lurid hyperbole and, though I love him for it, I get the collywobbles when I reflect the brazen way I have plotted to have him exercise his talent in this respect on my behalf. . . . I warned him to hold off'n me . . . but your letter makes it clear that that balloon is busted and I'm the chappee with the bag who must spend the rest of his days trying to live up to and live down the reputation acquired by his own rash act. But you, too, are dripping with the gore of the same hegoat and I love you, for your soul is white if your hood be scarlet and your aid, comfort and participation in the plot from its inception made its success possible and doubly enjoyable. I am surprised you have your gun out for the American Mus. bunch—please remember they have to advertise to live and they do a good job advertising like most things they undertake. You must admit we have not been any blushing roses when it came to turning our wolf loose (if you don't mind mixed metaphors)—if I blushed every time I thought of the cold-blooded advertising campaign I thought of and G.E.S. has carried through, I'd be permanently purple, so I can't think hard things of the kettle. . . . Yes, Toronto did come across to me in a most wonderful and unexpected fashion. I heard of it first through my aunt who went to the convocation and then I heard from an old classmate of mine, Dr. Cowdry, in New York. Now G.E.S., Evans and my brother-in-law and now you, too, confirm the news, so I begin to believe it. But from the University I have received never a word, and I'm in the highly embarrassing position of not knowing just what is indicated. I have accordingly written McMurrich again and told him how greatly I appreciated the honor for which I knew he personally was responsible, and wotinell was to be done seeing as how I had had no official notification. They had written me and offered the degree if I would turn up but they said it was obligatory to turn up. I cabled regrets as soon as their letter came in July and wrote Falconer (President) also, expressing my appreciation and regrets. Surely I can't very well write again until I have an official tip from the University? And blast it all I want the red drapery for next June here, and I don't know anything about the style that goes with the degree and time has such a way of getting by that I'm afraid it will have gone before the dope comes through. Golly, it's nice to know you were sitting there when the deed was done—in a front seat with a short poker and a red gown I'd helped root for when Hong Kong graced its rolls with your name in 1925—1 only wish Aunt Grace [Mrs. T. D. Delamere] could have known

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you were there—she is a peach and got a great kick out of it, but she would have been thrilled no end to have known you. My brother-in-law, Irving Nevitt, was there also and sent me a programme and would have welcomed the opportunity to procure real liquor of quality in quantity for you. [This is a reference to Prohibition, in force at that time.] How I wish you were near enough to chat with. . . . I want to tell you of my own dreams and how I have a scheme worked out roughly to work in Egypt and in Persia and also here—all first-class bets to yield pay dirt from the outset. Teilhard de Chardin is coming back to China, via New York to see Berkey, sometime in the early part of February. . . . He is a peach to work with and to play with and he would still play with me in Egypt and Persia if the scheme works out. I shall surely not forget to give you firsthand news always and to send you everything that comes out on Sinanthropus . . . but I must cut this out now as it's 5.30 A.M.

The year 1930 ended with honours multiplying as Black's fame spread; among others he had received the Daniel Giraud Eliot Medal and was elected Honorary Corresponding Member of the Field Musum of Natural History, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and Honorary Member of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., and many more.3 In December 1930 he wrote to Keith: We are indebted to the masters of our craft for teaching us that so-called work and real pleasure are synonymous terms. It's a pleasant and indeed a humorous situation when one can earn one's livelihood playing! Our work at Chou-K'ou-tien closed after another most successful year. Pei found another beautiful jaw fragment and this time it includes the right condyle and ascending process and the ramus as far forward as M2. While I was at Chou-K'ou-tien in the last week of November we came on a new locus and recovered four more molar teeth in situ and the "lower cave" twenty-five meters below the terrace. It was nice and warm down there in contrast to the bitter cold outside. All this will be announced later on from the Survey . . . meanwhile I am tearing my hair getting the MS of my report on the first skull finished within this calendar year. . . . The more I play with it the more fascinating it becomes. We had a cable from Elliot Smith yesterday so he is evidently safely home after his strenuous trip. He characteristically has not spared himself in serving the interests of the Survey and the Cenozoic Laboratory and after his popularizing Sinanthropus for us in America I should have a relatively easy task before me a year from now when I will have to ask for more money from the powers that be. The nicest thing about this pleasant world is to have such friends as you and he. 3. See the list of Davidson Black's honours on page 2.

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Visitors were frequent to the Anatomy Department, especially after the discovery of the first skull. Perhaps Black's recourse to his allnight sessions of work protected him from those who were likely to be time-wasters. But not in this class was the famous sculptress, Malvina Hoffman, who arrived in Peking in November 1931 and stayed until January 1932. She had been given a commission by the directors of the Field Commission of Chicago to tour the world making sculptured figures of the various races and the ethnic stocks for their Hall of Man exhibit. In her entertaining book Heads and Tales, she tells in a graphic manner of her arrival in Peking where she met Davidson Black and set up her studio in the basement of the Anatomy Department of the Peking Union Medical College. This was the only place in Peking that would give enough height for her work. The rugged experiences of our trip from Japan, the violence of the Yellow Sea and the scenes that ensued on the railway were in sharp contrast to our first evening in Peking when we were introduced to a large group of foreign residents by Mrs. Calhoun. This was an astonishing banquet. The effect of thirty guests in evening regalia illuminated by candles and standard lanterns was rather a revelation to us. ... We had never seen a Chinese House and the rows of coloured paper lanterns throwing their light over the snow-covered courtyard was breathtaking. Silent bowing servants, in long satin coats, guiding us through the labyrinth of courts and inner rooms. I met Dr. Davidson Black, famous the world over for his part in the discovery of "Peking Man." Next day we went to the Peking Union Medical College where Dr. Black had been director of the Anatomy Department; we found a workroom set aside for us. With the assistance of Dr. Paul H. Stevenson . . . we plunged into our task of studying and selecting representative types of Mongolian, Manchurian, and Chinese, who differ as much in appearance and bony structure as if they belonged to separate races. After a few days of careful observation we learned to pick them out at sight as we walked through the crowded streets of Peking. The fact that martial law was in force during the time we were in Peking made little difference to our daily programme. . . . The temperature was twenty degrees below zero, but the sun was bright except when extinguished by the "sand storms from the Gobi Desert"—so called by the visitors but which consist chiefly of the dust of all the streets and unpaved hutungs of Peking. At nine o'clock we started work in the Peking Union Medical College, working till late afternoon and enjoying frequent visits from Dr. Davidson Black who was always accompanied by his "Number One Boy" carrying a tray with fragile bowls of steaming tea. . . . The "studio" which I fitted up with modelling stands and an improvised throne, made

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of packing boxes on which my sitters posed, was situated halfway between the "morgue" and the "mouse house" where thousands of white mice were serving their time as experimental material for the students of diseases. This was the only free space available that had a good north light. . . . If sitters were not led to the door by an attendant they might accidentally open the wrong door and find themselves in the presence of various sections of human cadavers laid out on tables for anatomy students To open the door into the mouse house was almost as much of a shock to the olfactory nerves."4

When Miss Hoffman was leaving, Dr. Black went to see her off at the station. She says: "Dr. Black was really all that a friendly person could be, but he rebuked me soundly for leaving before I had modelled a complete Hall of China. . . ." The author of this narrative paid a visit to Malvina Hoffman in 1961 in her vast studio in New York. She was then a charming, slender, and comely woman of about seventy. She talked freely of her sojourn in China and of the interest Black had shown in her art; she had been as amazed at his capacity to drink endless cups of tea as she was in his knowledge of craniology. Anatomists and anthropologists, she said, frequently tried to persuade her to continue her study of these subjects begun when she was an art student in New York, but she maintained that as an artist she must study and depict man as she saw him, and would lose this approach if she saw only the bony structure. About this time a new personality appeared on Black's scientific horizon in the young physiographer Dr. Helmut de Terra who had spent some time in exploring the Salt Ranges in the Punjab and in Kashmir. In these regions de Terra felt there were evidences of early man. Black had read widely of the theories on the rise of the Himalayas advanced by de Terra and others, and longed to explore the vast territories from the Yangtze, Tibet, and northern India to Baluchistan. He knew there was no possibility of his taking a journey alone through the difficult regions. But when leave came in the spring of 1932 he made up his mind to take an overland journey through northern India, Afghanistan, Persia and Iraq, to study the geography of the terrain at first hand. He would then go to Palestine, where he could inspect the cave of the famous Galilee skull, and afterwards to Egypt and finally home to Canada. There was a romantic interest too in the prospect of such a journey. The wanderings and conquests 4. Malvina Hoffman, Heads and Tales (Garden City, N.Y., 1943).

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of Genghis Khan as told in Lamb's translation had long been his favourite bedside book, and where his travels took him in the footsteps of his hero it is hoped the weariness of the journey was relieved. When in February 1932 he heard through Roger Greene that a travelling scholarship of $2500 had been given him by the Rockefeller Foundation for his four months trip, he arranged that his wife and children would go to Canada via Vancouver while he sailed for Calcutta. Only fragments, of information about this difficult journey have come to light. In India he met officials of the Geological Survey and tried to enlist them to carry out an extended programme to study the Hundes region but money was not forthcoming for such a project. Persia presented difficulties of motor travel over terrifying corkscrewturn mountain roads leading from Teheran to the sea. The sight of frequent car wrecks by the roadside was cold comfort to the traveller who must proceed or perish. To cross Iraq and Syria, Black persuaded some French military officers in charge of planes carrying mail to take him as a passenger. They stopped at Baghdad on the stiflingly hot journey to the Mediterranean. Miss Hempel records that she typed his diary of the journey but this must have been left in China with his other papers. There could have been little opportunity en route to give much detail, but it is a sad omission. On his return to Canada after his Middle Eastern expedition he was greeted with the news that he had been elected a member of the Royal Society and could now join the ranks of the comparatively few Canadians, at that time, who could use the letters F.R.S. after their names. He was essentially a British Canadian by inclination as well as by birth, although he had spent his life since 1909 outside his own country in the employment of the United States institutions. If he coveted honours at all as a scientist, it was to be elected a member of this august society, founded in 1660 and the oldest continuous scientific society. The crowning distinction came when he was asked to give the Croonian Lecture at the meeting of members on December 8, 1932. He was the first Canadian to receive this high honour. It added much to Black's pride to belong to a Society which included among the long muster of its fellows such illustrious personalities as Newton (without doubt the greatest), Halley, Wren, Pepys, Hooke, Darwin, Huxley, and Rutherford. To stand where these men had-stood gave Black a sense of fulfilment only exceeded by the discovery of Sinanthr&pus. The policy of the Royal Society

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from its beginning was to admit as a supporting member anyone who was interested in science. Nationality was no barrier, and even when wars interrupted the intercourse between the nations, members of enemy countries still remained on the rolls. This policy and the setting up of the International Research Council after World War I fitted in perfectly with Black's ideas of scientific integration. The history of the Croonian Lectureship, the senior lectureship of the Society, is one of those stories which are cherished in England for their curious blending of generous intentions and chance. The name goes back even before the Society received its Charter when, on November 28, 1660, the design for such an institution was discussed by a small band of men who met weekly at Gresham College. One among these was Mr. Croone, who later became Registrar and an active member of the Royal Society, and who, on his death in 1684, left a scheme for two lectureships which he intended to found and support, one being for the Royal Society. But, in his will (like many another) he left no provision for carrying out his purpose. His good wife, who later became Lady Sadlier, remedied this omission and in her will of 1701 bequeathed for the support of the two lectureships one-fifth of the clear rent of the King's Head Tavern in or near Old Fish Street, London, at the corner of Lambeth Hill. The President of the Royal Society was to be the judge of the usefulness of the subject of the lecture. A decree in Chancery in 1728 empowered the Society to devote the whole net annual profits of the legacy to the payment of a single Croonian lecture. From 1786 to 1885 the property was let for £15 per annum, so that the share of the Society was about £3, but after 1885 it materially increased. In 1915 the property was sold for £6,500 and the Society now receives the interest on onefifth of this sum from the Charity Commission; since 1940, the amount of about £49 has been paid to the lecturer. Black's lecture was to be given on Thursday, December 8th, 1932, at 4.30 P.M. in the Society's stately quarters in Burlington House. With his wife he made a special trip of two weeks to England for this event. For weeks before leaving home in Toronto he worked almost exclusively on the text of his speech, which was to be entitled "The Discovery, Morphology and Environment of Sinanthropus."5 5. Black's Croonian lecture appears in his bibliography for the year 1934. This printed version was an extended one which the Royal Society allowed him to write after the lecture was given.

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According to the provisions governing these lectures, the author must provide a printed abstract, or synopsis, for the press, the contents not to be communicated to any journal for publication until after the lecture has been delivered. A copy of the leaflet of four pages has survived and gives in a clear and concise way the history of the search for fossil man at Chou-K'ou-tien from 1921 to 1932. On the little pamphlet the letters "F.R.S." appear after Black's name—probably for the first time in print. The full text of the Croonian lecture appeared in the Society's Philosophical Transactions in the summer of 1934. His London friends were present, of course, and Elliot Smith records his impressions: "It was not so much his pride in receiving this high distinction as the opportunity it gave him for describing the work at Peking in his own restrained and careful way and particularly the chance it offered him to make adequate acknowledgement of the help he had received from others, in particular his friends in Peking." After the speech there was a gala reception. As one genial member declared to the Blacks, it was their day and they could choose among the guests any they wished especially to meet. Mrs. Black's choice fell on a particularly handsome member. History does not relate Black's. When Black returned to China he was given a hero's welcome. Here was a man of their own limited circle whom they had learned to respect for his learning and his integrity, now acclaimed by the scientific world. A letter from one of Black's colleagues in Peking develops the picture of him as fundamentally British, although as a scientist he was a citizen of the world. From the Isle of Arran Dr. John Cameron wrote in 1959 of his memories of Black in China at this time and of his contacts with Banting in Toronto. Isle of Arran 7th August, 1959 DEAR MRS. HOOD: I have just received your letter with the request that I write something about my old friend, Davidson Black. It is going back a long way now to recall those days in China some 38 years ago. I got to know him rather well because we were both British on what was really an American staff. We foreigners were thrown together more in China than we would have been had we been in say some European state. I found that Davidson had a tender spot in his heart for the

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Scottish race, hence our friendship. I have had the privilege of visiting your country many times during the past 40 years and each time I visit it I find that nearly all Canadians have a very warm spot for the Scots.8 I used to go over to Davidson's lab almost every morning and it was always the same greeting—How are you, John Cameron? Then after a few minutes' chaff he would go over to the fridge and produce a bottle of beer and we would drink this while discussing the affairs of the College and more often the community in general. He was a much respected member of the foreign community in Peking and after he received his F.R.S., he was in a class by himself amongst the many scientists in the Far East. I knew Banting rather well and each time I visited Toronto I used to call and spend some time with him in his fine new lab. Banting took a great interest in Black and each time I met Banting I had to tell him all about the work Black was doing. Banting, I remember, once said to me that they were very proud of Black's work in China because he was adding to the sum total of scientific work being done throughout the world by Canadians. One thing I remember about Black was that he gave his problems, and he had many of them in China, 100% attention and concentration. Although I knew nothing about anatomy, I am a chemist, he would some mornings tell me about his problems and ask my advice and help. More often than I care to remember I was of no assistance to him. He would then sayJohn Cameron, you ought to have been an anatomist not a chemist. He never played any games. I tried without success to get him interested in tennis but, no, he would not leave his lab. He used to come into his lab about eleven in the morning and often I would see the light burning in his lab long after midnight such was his power of complete concentration.

Black's activities during the years 1932-33 would have put a severe strain on the strongest man. As a traveller in 1932 he had circled the world, most of his journey being under extremely difficult conditions. Soon after reaching Canada he had made his additional hurried trip to England to deliver his important lecture to the Royal Society, as well as two other lectures before learned and possibly critical audiences. On his return to China he wrote to Dr. Gregory: "I have to prepare our reports for the Fifth Pacific Science Congress which will take place in Vancouver in June 1933 and for the International Geological Congress in Washington in the summer." It was at this latter meeting that he foregathered with his companions of many 6. Dr. John Cameron was asked by the British Mission in Washington to accompany Sir Alexander Fleming on his tour of Canada and the United States, 1945.

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adventures, Barbour, Grabau, Ting and Teilhard. Here, too, he met his new friend for the first and last time, Helmut de Terra. Barbour recalls it was on this occasion that Black first discussed with him the possibilities of taking an expedition to the Yangtze in company with Teilhard de Chardin. Later in the year Black wrote to Barbour from Peking. "I became hipped with the idea that the Yangtze valley holds the key to many of the peculiar problems which confront us in the north." Plans were made to start in the spring of 1934, when Barbour and Teilhard would again be in China. Much as Black enjoyed these meetings where he could discuss his problems with a host of friends, the journeys to and from consumed valuable time, for he felt his most important work was in China. It was his responsibility now to produce the definitive report on the history of the discovery and identification of Sincmthropus. This meant the co-ordination of all the preliminary reports of those taking part, with the addition of his own final conclusions. The report came out under the name of "Fossil Man in China," and on the title page beside his own name were those of his fellow-workers, Teilhard de Chardin, C. C. Young, and W. C. Pei. It is an impressive work with 82 detailed engravings of fossils and artifacts, and numerous maps of localities. Although a strictly scientific report, it is full of interest even for the uninitiated. The volume is dated May 1933 and in the Foreword, Wong Wen-hao, director of the National Geological Survey, says: "The printing of this volume [took place] under especially difficult conditions prevailing in China.-" Errata there were and it is probable another edition would have been issued had not war and death intervened. Here it may be useful to provide a chronological list of Sinanthrcrpus fossils found in the excavations of Chou-K'ou tien during Dr. Black's lifetime and identified by him (fossilized bones of numerous extinct animal forms were, of course, found throughout also) : 1927 Lower molar tooth. 1928 Numerous isolated teeth. Greater part of juvenile jaw. A fine adult jaw fragment with three molar teeth in situ. 1929 Several loose teeth. A beautifully preserved adolescent skull possibly female. 1930 A number of skull fragments of which almost the whole posterior half was preserved, the calvaría of an adult.

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1931 Artifacts of stone rudely chipped. Much black pigment proved to be carbon indicating local action of fire, in association with skull fragments. The greater part of a shaft of a stoutly built clavicle. 1932 A mature jaw specimen together with numerous teeth fragments. When Black had returned to China in the autumn of 1933 his friends had noticed his pace was slower and he lacked his former energy. On his first trip to the caves to inspect the results of the 1933 excavations, he suffered a transient heart attack, but recovered quickly and went on with the inspection. Soon after his return to the College his friends insisted that he must enter the hospital for rest and examination. The report was grave and with inborn courage he faced the fact that his days were numbered. After a rest he returned to his laboratory and began to put his affairs in order, although he kept this from everyone, even his wife. Only Miss Hempel knew, and she was sworn to secrecy. His strength of mind is shown in a letter he wrote on March 13 to his friend de Terra at Yale, full of speculation on their mutual geological interest. DEAR DR. DE TERRA: Thank you very much indeed for the reprint of your delightful paper "Physiographic results of a recent survey in Little Tibet" which reached me last week. I am tremendously interested in the work you have been doing because it has such a very vital bearing on the problems of the Cenozoic confronting us. Your news of the Late Tertiary rising of the plateau is splendid and fits in with what we are able to surmise to have been the history of the northeastern part of Asia. It was this very problem I was interested in when in India in 1932 while you were there, but I found the Geological Survey unable to undertake an expanded programme of work on account of the "financial retrenchment." I wanted to go on to the Hundes region just to the S.E. of the area you were working in (Geol. Map India sheets 53 and 62) and asked the G.S.I, if they would help. They said they would be delighted to do so if funds for the work could be raised but they had none of their own. I planned to begin next year with funds derived from America taking to India for a short time some of our own men knowing the Cenozoic problem of the Far East and working as a part of G.S.I, under their auspices and publishing in their journals. Alas, the depression in the U.S.A. has effectually put a stop to my dream. Now since you are working in the same field, I am simply delighted and I hope you will be able to continue the work with adequate support for some years. Of course you know Griesbach's Geology of the Central Himalayas (Mem. Geol. Surv. India, Vol. 23,

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1891). It was to determine the physiographic history of the Hundes and to investigate those richly fossiliferous beds (14,000 to 15,000 feet altitude) that I had in mind. The secondary erosion seemed to be enough to give exposure from Miocene to recent times and the beds are said to be level and undisturbed. Fossil Primates and possibly early Hominids are probable in the region and the general sequence of fossil fauna and flora and stratigraphy would add greatly to the post-Pontian history that is so badly needed. If you can forward this idea in connection with any plans you now have please do so, for it would be greatly to the advantage of all interested in Cenozoic research if you would carry it on for as many years as you can devote to it. My original plan called for an extension of work into Baluchistan and along the east borders of Persia where I went in 1932. I hope we can work through south-west Szechuan and Yunnan into the east and south of the plateau, but as things are now in those areas field work cannot be done. We are going to have a try in the Yangtze valley this summer and Dr. George S. Barbour is coming as a visiting physiographer to help us. I should be greatly obliged if you would let me have reprints of the various papers to be published by you and the other men and collaborators of your expedition and I shall see that all our papers reach you as soon as they appear. With best wishes from Grabau, Teilhard and myself. . . . P.S., March 14th. Your letter of February 8th came this morning and I thank you very much indeed for your cordial good wishes. I am glad that our paper was of interest. It is of interest to us because it is the first time we have attempted to put our general ideas concerning the Cenozoic into words. I hope our field plans will work out so we can in a year or so answer and extend some of the questions raised. It would be simply splendid if you could continue on in south Asia and we could exchange ideas and get you to come to Peking when you have a bit of spare time. Writing in 1961, Professor de Terra gives an interesting history of this letter. It was the only one he ever received from Black and was a most useful one to him since it convinced the authorities at Yale University of the necessity for organizing another expedition to India and Kashmir in 1935-36 led by de Terra with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin as his co-worker. To assure preservation of the letter, Dr. de Terra donated it to the Osborn Library in the American Museum of Natural History where this biographer found it. "I am happy," wrote de Terra in 1961, "to know that you are writing a biography of Dr. Black, whose scientific genius was unsurpassed in the field of prehistoric research in China." On March 15, Davidson Black went to work as usual about five

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in the afternoon. His friend, C. C. Young, watched him as he walked slowly to his laboratory, clad in his white work coat. "I went to pay him a visit and found him sitting at the desk where he had worked for years and years at science. He talked of his anxiety as to whether his plans for the future of the Cenozoic Research Laboratory could be carried out." When his last visitor had left and the quietness of evening had come to the College, Black turned once more to his work. An hour later he was dead.

CHAPTER

TEN

Aftermath

DAVIDSON BLACK'S short life was a singularly complete one. So well had he laid the foundation of Cenozoic research in China that there was no danger of imminent collapse when the keystone was removed. Seven years later, through modern man's intractability, only the shell remained. When the spring excavations began in 1934 Teilhard de Chardin assumed the heavy duties as director of the excavations. The fact that he took Black's place for a year, together with his numerous pamphlets on the subject of Sinanthrojms pekinensis, may have tended to create the impression, outside China, that he was actually responsible for the famous fossils. In the years following the Second World War he grew famous for his philosophical writings and after his death in 1955, when his revolutionary book Le Phénomène humain appeared (published in English in 1959 as The Phenomenon of Man), he was frequently described in European and American newspapers as the discoverer of Peking Man. This was, of course, untrue, nor did he ever claim this distinction and would have been shocked at the suggestion of such a breach of scientific behaviour. To Teilhard, Black's death was a great tragedy. "He was more than a brother to me," he wrote. Pei carried on as archaeologist and Ting, Grabau, and Young, who had all worked so harmoniously with Black, continued to analyse the fossils and geological material. Barbour was on his way to China to lead the expedition to the Yangtze River so long planned by himself and Black. "It seemed our

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best tribute to Black," he wrote in his report of the journey, "to carry on in accordance with his wishes." It was one of Black's far-reaching plans that the evolution of the land surface in the vast country surrounding Peking should be known and this trip would complete the work already done in Manchuria, Jehol, Outer Mongolia, the Ordos, and northern China beyond Ranchow. The directors of the College were now faced with the task of filling the two posts left vacant by Black's sudden death. However, there was no real difficulty about the headship of the Anatomy Department, since Dr. Fortuyn had been Acting Head for some time. He received the appointment and continued to fill this position with distinction until the dark days of December 1941. For years the governors of the College in Peking and New York had acknowledged Black's contention that the physical anthropological side of prehistoric research was important to their undergraduates. It was now their duty to find an experienced man to become head of the Cenozoic Research Laboratory. The choice eventually fell on Dr. Franz Weidenreich, a middle-aged man, well known for his work in Germany and France and the United States. When Dr. Weidenreich arrived thirteen months later (April 1935) he found an ideal research organization in the combined efforts of the Geological Survey of China and the Anatomy Department of the College. In both these institutions, as well as in the field, were staffs of trained workers. Even more valuable to the newcomer was the unique collection of fossils with complete documentary evidence of their history. The only disturbing element was the growing menace of the Japanese occupation of the whole of northeastern China. After Weidenreich's arrival there remained only two full seasons of undisturbed work at Chou-K'ou-tien. But these were fruitful and gave him plenty of additional fossils on which to work. When guerilla fighting broke out on the plains between the Western Hills and Peking, the excavations had to be abandoned for many years to come. From then until his departure, Weidenreich devoted himself to the study of material accumulated by Black and himself and to writing his vast monographs. When in April 1941 he foresaw the end, he left for the United States, taking a set of the casts with him. There he lectured and wrote on the subject of Sinanthr&pus -pekinensis until his death in 1948.

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These reports of Black and Weidenreich and the casts made by them of the fossils found in the caves of Chou-K'ou-tien have proved invaluable to anthropologists, for today the originals no longer exist. It is one of the tragedies of modern research into prehistory that scientists may not handle and assess, in the light of the methods developed during the last twenty-five years, the relics now known as Pithecanthropus -pekinensis. Many versions of the story of the loss of the fossils have appeared in print and rumours have been rife that they may yet be found in some obscure hiding place. Although mystery surrounds their actual fate, there is sufficient evidence in writing to be sure of their history leading up to their final disappearance. It makes an interesting, if sad, story of mischance. By 1940 the stranglehold of the Japanese on the whole of eastern China had increased to such an extent that the Chinese government, together with many of the Chinese scientists, had fled to the remote city of Chungking. On January 10, 1941, Dr. Wong Wen-hao wrote from Chungking to Dr. Houghton of the Peking Union Medical College asking what their friends in Peking proposed to do with the valuable scientific material in the Cenozoic Research Laboratories in the College in the case of a serious emergency. Wong himself felt the alternatives were either that the fossils be sent to him in the Southwest where a safe place would be found for them, or that arrangements should be made to dispatch them, as soon as possible, to some institution in the United States where they might find a temporary haven until events made it safe for their return. The danger, however, of sending anything of value on the long and uncertain journey to Chungking was so great that Wong felt he must leave the decision to Dr. Houghton, Dr. Pei, and Dr. Weidenreich. In the light of later accusations it is interesting to find that the suggestion to send them to the United States was first made by Dr. Wong. This letter was long in reaching Peking, and it was exactly three months later, on April 10, 1941, that Dr. Houghton discussed its contents in a letter to Dr. Lobenstine of the China Medical Board in New York, with which he sent a copy of Dr. Wong's letter. Dr. Houghton wrote, "After talking the matter over with Dr. Weidenreich and others interested, including the Secretary of the United States Embassy, I came to the conclusion that it would not be in order

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to send them to the United States. We are therefore retaining them here in a safe which will be sealed and kept in the College." This was considered wise as the College up to that time had not been interfered with by the Japanese. The constant feeling that an emergency might arise had been for years part of the daily life of both the Chinese and the foreigners in Peking, and as a result they seem to have acquired an immunity to this fear. Otherwise it would appear strange that months could pass, with the political situation worsening week by week, with no permanent hiding place having been found for the treasures. The fossils had lain buried for countless centuries, yet it was not considered possible to return them secretly to Mother Earth for safe-keeping. Dr. Houghton, writing in 1961, recalled the final decision made in the summer of 1941. "They [the fossils] were taken from the safe in the Cenozoic Laboratory [in the College] and packed there at night by Mr. Bowen and myself in two foot-lockers. They were replaced, piece by piece in the safe, by the very accurate casts which were available. The lockers were then put in a large vault in the hospital administration unit. It is my memory that they were taken by Mr. Bowen some time in July to the Marine Guard [United States Embassy] and delivered to Colonel Ashurst, who agreed to include them in his personal luggage whenever the guard should be recalled to the United States." In removing the fossils Dr. Houghton was complying with Dr. Wong's only suggestion for their safety. They remained in the United States Embassy until December 5, 1941, when they left by special train in the keeping of a detachment of United States Marines which had been ordered to proceed to Ching-wang-tao for embarkation on the liner President Harrison. The marines arrived at the port on December 7th, where they were captured by the Japanese and sent back to Peking. The President Harrison was grounded by her crew and later fell into Japanese hands. Nothing is known of the fate of the boxes of fossils. One marine developed appendicitis on reaching Peking and was taken to the hospital of the Peking Union Medical College, where he had an opportunity to tell his doctor that he had been in charge of the boxes when he was captured but had no idea what happened to them. At this point, reliable history of their fate comes to an end.

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Eighteen months were to pass before it was known that all trace of them had been lost. At the end of the war rumour spread that the fossils were now in Japan and a search was made for them there. Dr. Fortuyn's diary written in Peking during the war gives a picture of the uncertainty among the occupying Japanese about the fate of the original fossils. After Pearl Harbor, Dr. Houghton and Mr. Bowen and other United States citizens employed in the College were imprisoned as enemy aliens. Père Teilhard de Chardin, as a Frenchman, came under the jurisdiction of the Vichy government and was not interned, but could not return to France. Dr. Fortuyn being a citizen of the occupied Netherlands was treated as an internee, and for this reason it was possible for him to go to the College on December 9, 1941, as usual, although there were guards at the gate. His diary records that on reaching his room, two Japanese medical officers arrived with an interpreter and together they went to the Cenozoic Research Laboratory. No questions were asked about Sinanthropus pekinensis, which gave Dr. Fortuyn the impression that they knew all about it. The College was closed by the Japanese on January 24, 1942, and he had no opportunity to go there until June when he was asked to meet Dr. Taniguchi, Professor of Anatomy of Tokyo University, in his old department. The Japanese doctor's real intention seemed to be to find the Sinanthropus material but he asked only for a catalogue of it. This could not be found because the College, now occupied by Japanese troops, was in complete confusion. In July, again, Dr. Fortuyn was ordered to meet Dr. Matsuhashi, a Japanese doctor who had been in Peking for some time and had always been on courteous terms with him. This time he was no longer friendly and questioned him closely as to the whereabouts of the valuable fossils. To counter this curiosity Dr. Fortuyn said they were partly in Holland and partly in Java. Dr. Matsuhashi denied this saying that Dr. Weidenreich told him they had been sent to the United States five years ago. This rumour had been deliberately spread to protect them. Dr. Fortuyn was then asked to find the casts but again the wretched condition of the laboratories made the search fruitless. It was obvious that the Japanese doctors were ignorant of the fate of the real relics, but were well aware of their value. This fact, though not certain proof of their complete loss, points strongly in that direction.

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The last rumour circulated was that Professor D. V. S. Watson of London University was reported to have seen the real skull of Peking Man in the American Museum of Natural History. The author of this biography had a letter from Dr. Watson in 1961 saying he had seen the cast only in the Museum. And thus, Peking Man, a treasured relic of the remote past for twelve years, has once more disappeared into the unknown. "Man lives between two eternities, warring against oblivion."

APPENDIXES

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Appendix I PEKING MAN THREE DECADES AFTER DISCOVERY

THIRTY YEARS is a long time in modern anthropology and startling changes in thought and in methods of classification can take place in much less time. It is, however, significant that Black's claim for Sinanthropus •pekinensis still stands today. Aside from Australopithecus (a very early form of ape-man), we know more about Peking Man than any other fossil hominid, because so many specimens were found, their history was intelligently recorded, and casts made available. The most marked advance in Peking Man and his near relation Java Man is shown in the capacity of the brain-vaults. Both have thick skulls and large heeding brows, and from the skull to the neck they are much the same, except that Peking Man is less massive in that region and above the ears. In Peking Man (males) the brain capacity averages 1075 centimetres against Java Man's 850 centimetres, a difference of 200 centimetres, while modern man's is estimated at 1450 centimetres. In Peking Man there is a noticeable bump for a forehead, contrasting with the low ape-like shape of the head above the brows in Java Man. The teeth in both skulls show a marked difference from those of apes and ape-men, being much smaller and the canines less pointed, giving the face a distinctly more human appearance. There is a curious variation between the molars of these two hominids. Peking Man's first upper molar is the largest, while in Java Man, the second molar is larger. The many examples of jaw pieces with teeth in situ found in the caves of Chou-K'ou-tien show the jaw of Peking Man to be short, with a distinct angle to the chin. On the basis of this evidence, modern anthropologists seem to agree that, until new facts confront them, these two primates represent the "pre-human phase of hominid evolution."1 It is an acknowledged fact that the environment in which fossils are 1. W. E. Le Gros Clark, History of the Primates (Chicago, 1962), p. 123.

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found has an important bearing on their place in prehistory. The grounds for considering Peking Man's position as nearer true man are increased by the fact that his fossils were discovered with the fossil bones of certain extinct animals and with crudely made chipped stone and bone tools among the ashes of man-made fires. Scientists are thus able to assume that he existed in the middle Pleistocene division of geological time or, in other words, during the long second interglacial period. However, this assumption is fraught with difficulties for, as it has been said, "dating the past is a fantastically intricate business." We now come to the vexed question of nomenclature. Two centuries ago a remarkable Swede, Carolus Linnaeus, devised a system for the classification of names for natural phenomena. From then on the Linnaean rules were applied to classes, orders, families, and species. Haeckel (1834-1919) followed this system in calling his hypothetical ape-man Pithecanthropus, though, later on, zoologists ruled that the object must exist before it could be named. When Dubois found a fossilized cranial vault at Trinil on the Solo River in Java in 1891 he named it Pithecanthropus erectus (standing ape-man). It is now the accepted practice to put Peking Man and Java Man under the same general classification of Pithecanthropus and identify them thus: Pithecanthropus pekinensis and Pithecanthropus erectus. Black foresaw the possibility of a change in nomenclature when he said in his Croonian lecture (given in 1932 and revised in 1933): "The generic name Sinanthropus was created to be a useful tool. The names Palaeoanthropus, Eoanthropus, Pithecanthropus, and Sinanthropus are at once useful and distinctive, the last one particularly so since its derivation is so obviously zoogeographic, carrying with it no implication of preconceived relationship. Ideas regarding the latter must necessarily change from time to time as new evidence becomes available."

Appendix II BIBLIOGRAPHY OF DAVIDSON BLACK'S WRITINGS*

1913 The central nervous system in a case of cyclopia in Homo. Journal of Comparative Neurology, volume 23, number 3 (June), pages 193—243. On the possible trophic role of the afferent projection fibres in the development of the cortex cerebri. Read before the Experimental Section of the Academy of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, September 5 The study of an atypical cerebral cortex. Journal of Comparative Neurology, volume 23, number 5 (October), pages 351-369. 1914 On the so-called "bulbar" portion of the accessory nerve. Proceedings of the American Association of Anatomy, 30th session. Abstract, Anatomical Record, volume 8, number 2 (February), pages 110-112. The relation of the accessory nerve to the vagus complex (Abstract). Cleveland Medical Journal, volume 13, number 2 (February), pages 128-129. Two cases of cardiac malformation—more especially of the infundibular region. Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, volume 48 (April), pages 274-279. Notes on the endocranial casts of Okapia, Giraffa and Samotherium. Proceedings of the American Association of Anatomy, 31st session. Abstract, Anatomical Record, volume 9, number 1, pages 56-59. 1915 Brain in primitive man. Cleveland Medical Journal, volume 14 (March), pages 177-185. A.L. * Copies of Dr. Black's monographs in Toronto libraries are indicated by symbols as follows: U.T.L., University of Toronto Library; A.L., Department of Anatomy Library, University of Toronto; R.O.M., Royal Ontario Museum.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

A note on the sulcus lunatus in man. Journal of Comparative Neurology, volume 25, number 2 (April), pages 129-133. A study of the endocranial casts of Okapia, Giraffa and Samotherium, with special reference to the convolutional pattern in the family of Giraffidae. Journal of Comparative Neurology, volume 25, number 4 (August), pages 329-360.

1916 Endocranial markings of the human occipital bone, and their relations to the adjacent parts of the brain, with special reference to the socalled "vermiform fossa." Proceedings of the American Association of Anatomy, 32nd session. Abstract, Anatomical Record, volume 10, number 3 (January), pages 182-185. Cerebellar localization in the light of recent research. Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine, volume 1, number 7 (April), pages 467-475. 1917 The motor nuclei of cerebral nerves in phylogeny—a study of the phenomena of neurobiotaxis. Part I, Cyclostomi and Pisces; Part II, Amphibid. Journal of Comparative Neurology, volumes 27 and 28. 1920 Circular: Material for anatomical and anthropological collections. Peking, privately printed (April), pages 1-7. Preliminary report on the endocranial anatomy of Oreodon. Proceedings of the Anatomical and Anthropological Association of China. Abstract, China Medical Journal, Anatomical Supplement, volume 34, number 4 (July), pages 19-20. Concerning anthropometry and observations on healthy subjects. China Medical Journal, Anatomical Supplement, volume 34, number 4 (July), pages 64-69. U.T.L. The motor nuclei of the cerebral nerves in phylogeny—a study of the phenomena of neurobiotaxis. Part III, Reptilia. Journal of Comparative Neurology, volume 32, number 1 (August), pages 61-98. U.T.L. The significance of certain endocranial markings in man and the importance of endocranial anatomy from the standpoint of anthropology. Proceedings of the Anatomical and Anthropological Association of China. Abstract, China Medical Journal, volume 32, number 6 (November), pages 689-690. Studies on endocranial anatomy. II, On the endocranial anatomy of Oreodon (Merycoidodon). Journal of Comparative Neurology, volume 32, number 3 (December), pages 271-327. U.T.L. 1920-21 Neolithic cave deposit at Sha Kuo T'un. Notice. Proceedings of the Anatomical and Anthropological Association of China.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

139

1921

The motor nuclei of the cerebral nerves in phylogeny—a study of the phenomena of neurobiotaxis. Part IV, Aves. Journal of Comparative Neurology, volume 34, number 2 (April), pages 233-275.

1922 The progress of the Third Asiatic Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History during the early part of this season's work. Proceedings of the Anatomical and Anthropological Association of China (June). Report, China Medical Journal, volume 36, number 4 (July), pages 342-343. U.T.L. 1923 Outline of laboratory work in neuro-anatomy. Peking, privately printed, pages 1-45. 1924 Peking Union Medical College, Department of Anatomy. I, Description of the building and equipment; II, Instruction and research. Methods and Problems of Medical Education (January), pages 2539. 1925 Recent work in the field of prehistoric anthropology in China. Proceedings of the Joint Conference of the China Medical Association and the China Branch, British Medical Association, Section on Anatomy and Anthropology, Hongkong (January). The human skeletal remains from the Sha Kuo T'un cave deposit in comparison with those from Yang Sha Tsun and with recent North China skeletal material. Palaeontologia Sinica, series D, volume 1, fascicule 3 (June), pages 1-148. A.L., R.O.M. A note on the physical characters of the prehistoric Kansu race. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of China, series A, number 5 (June), pages 52-56. A.L., R.O.M. The Aenolithic Yang Shao people of North China. A brief résumé of the work done and in progress on the physical characters of this ancient people, their distinction and their apparent ethnic relationships. Transactions of the 6th Congress of the Far Eastern Association of Tropical Medicine at Tokyo, volume I (October), pages 11111114. R.O.M. Asia and the dispersal of Primates. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, volume 4, number 2 (December), pages 113-183. 1926 Editorial. Variation and heredity, by A. B. Droogleever Fortuyn. China Medical Journal, volume 40, number 10 (October), pages 1-27.

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Tertiary man in Asia: The Chou Kou Tien discovery. Nature, volume 118 (November), pages 733-734; Science, volume 64, number 1668 (December), pages 586-587; Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, volume 5, numbers 3-4 (December, 1927), pages 207-208. Outline of laboratory work in neuro-anatomy, 2nd edition. Peking, Union Medical College Press, pages 1-45. 1927 (With E. Licent and Teilhard de Chardin). On a presumably Pleistocene human tooth from the Sjara-osso-gol (Southeastern Ordos) deposits. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, volume 5, numbers 3-4 (November), pages 285-290. A.L., R.O.M. Further hominid remains of Lower Quaternary age from the Chou Kou Tien deposit. Nature, volume 120 (December), page" 954; Science, volume 67, number 1727, pages 135-136. On a lower molar hominid tooth from the Chou Kou Tien deposit. Palaeontologia Sínica, series D, volume 7, fascicule 1 (November), pages 1-28. R.O.M.

1928 A study of Kansu and Honan Aeneolithic skulls and specimens from later Kansu prehistoric sites in comparison with North China and other recent crania. I, On measurement and identification. Palaeontologia Sínica, series D, volume 6, fascicule 1, pages 1-83. R.O.M. 1929 Preliminary note on additional Sinanthropus material discovered in Chou Kou Tien during 1928. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, volume 8, number 1, pages 15-32. A.L., R.O.M. Sinanthropus pekinensis: A further note on new material recovered at Chou Kou Tien in 1928 and its zoogeographical significance. Abstract of paper read at the Fourth Pacific Science Congress, Bandoeng, May 22. Sinanthropus pekinensis: The recovery of further fossil remains of this early hominid from the Chou Kou Tien deposit. Science, volume 69, number 1800 (June), pages 674-676. 1930 Preliminary notice of the discovery of an adult Sinanthropus skull at Choukoutien. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, volume 8, number 3, pages 207-230. A.L., R.O.M. Interim report on the skull of Sinanthropus. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, volume 9, number 1, pages 7-22. A.L., R.O.M. Notice of the recovery of a second adult Sinanthropus skull specimen. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, volume 9, number 2, pages 97-100. A.L., R.O.M.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

141

1931

On an adolescent skull of Sinanthropus pekinensis in comparison with an adult skull of the same species and with other hominid skulls, recent and fossil. Palaeontologia Sínica, series D, volume 7, fascicule 2, pages 1-144. Palaeogeography and polar shift: a study of hypothetical projections. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, volume 10, pages 105157. R.O.M. Evidence of the use of fire by Sinanthropus. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, volume 11, number 2, pages 107-108. R.O.M. Preliminary report on the Sinanthro'pus lower jaw specimens recovered from the Choukoutien cave deposit in 1930 and 1931. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, volume 11, number 3, pages 241246. A.L. Skeletal remains of Sinamthropus other than skull parts. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, volume 11, number 4, pages 365-374. A.L., R.O.M.

1933 On the endocranial cast of the adolescent Sinanthropus skull. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, B, volume 112, pages 263-276. U.T. The brain cast of Sinanthro'pus—a review. Journal of Comparative Neurology, volume 57, number 2, pages 361-368. Present state of knowledge concerning the morphology of Sinanthropus. Proceedings of the Fifth Pacific Science Congress, Vancouver, B.C. (June). U.T. (With Père Teilhard de Chardin, C. C. Young, and W. C. Pei). Fossil man in China: The Choukoutien cave deposits with a synopsis of our present knowledge of the Late Cenozoic in China. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of China, series A, number 11, pages 1-168. A.L., U.T., R.O.M. 1934 On the discovery, morphology and environment of Sinanthropus pekinensis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, series B, volume 223, pages 57-120. A.L., U.T.

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Index

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, ix, 33, 37, 39, 42, 60, 61, 125, 132 Anderson, J. E., ix Andersson, John Gunnar, vi, vii; Peking described, 48-49: geological research, 54, 63-65; Honan and Kansu, 72; meeting for Crown Prince of Sweden, 83; proposed trip to Chinese Turkestan, 87; Black visits him in Stockholm, 93-94 Andrews, Roy Chapman, 61, 8788 BAILLIE, James, vi Banting, Sir Frederick, 121-22 Barbour, George B., viii, 3, 19, 125; early career, 60-61; in Honan and Kansu, 72; consultant in field for Cenozoic Research Laboratory, 100; on discovery in 1929, 105; Yangtze trip, 125, 127-8 Barker, L. F., 37, 93 Bensley, B. A., Madawaska Club Biology Station, 13-14, 37 Black, Mrs. D. (née Adena Nevitt),

vii, 15, 23, 31, 32-33, 37, 47-48, 67, 82,90, 111, 121, 124 Black, Norman, viii, 71 Black, family history of, 5 Bohlin, Birgir, 85-86, 96-97 Bonin, Gerhardt von, viii, 73 Boule, Marcellin, 62 Bowen, Mr., 130, 131 Breuil, Henri, 62, 113 CAMERON, John, viii; letter about Black, 121-22 Cenozoic Research Laboratory, 100 Chiang Kai-shek, 78, 81, 97 Climate and Evolution (W. D. Matthew), 33-35 China Medical Board of New York, Inc., 43-44, 92 Cobb, W. Montague, 21 Cowdry, E. V., viii; with Black at Toronto Medical School, 12, 17; asks for Black as assistant at P.U.M.C., 40-41; greets him in China, 47; resigns, 52 Croonian Lecture, 119-121; quotation from Black's address, 136 Crown Prince of Sweden; see Gustaf Adolph

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INDEX

DAWSON, Charles, 28-30 Delameres, history of, 4-5, 23 de Terra, Helmut: work in Punjab, 118; Black's last letter to, 124-25 Dubois, Eugène: fossil finds in Java, 101, 135-36; letters to and from, 109-110 FLEMING, James Henry, 10-12, 14 Flexner, Simon, 40 Fortuyn, A. B. D., viii, 22; finds Black's letters 36; arrival in Peking, 75-77; diary on war in China, 79-82, 90, 95-96, 100; made head of anatomy department, P.U.M.C., 128; and Japanese occupation 131 GRABAU, AMADEOS W., 59-60, 84, 105, 125 Granger, Walter, 63 Greene, Roger S.: business director of P.U.M.C., 51, 57-58; letter on discovery of skull, 106 Gregory, W. K., 35-36, 82 Grant, J. C. B., v, vi Gustaf Adolph, Crown Prince of Sweden, visit to Peking, 83-85, 93 HABERER, K. A., 64 Hamann, Carl, 19-20 Hedin, Sven: consulted by Black, 87-88; upsets plans for explorations, 94 Hempel, Olga (Mrs. Gowen), viii, 73-74, 109, 111, 119, 124 Hoffman, Malvina, 117-18 Houghton, Henry S., viii; medical director of P.U.M.C.; 51; approves Siam trip, 56; funds for explorations, 88; Black's letter to, on Toronto degree, 114-16; fate of fossils, 129-30 Hrdlicka Ales, 36; visits Peking,

51-52; with Black in Washington, 93 Hsien, Wu, viii JONES, F. Wood, 12, 25, 28, 49, 52, 68, 100 KAPPERS, Ariens: Black studies with, 30-31, Black's letters to, 36-39, 41-42; visits China, 68 Keith, Sir Arthur: Black meets, 28-30; Black's letters to, 84, 9798, 100, 112, 116 Krogman, W. M., 22

Li, C., 85 MACALLUM, A. B., 16-17, 53 Madawaska Club, 13-15 Martin, Henri, 68 Matthew, William Diller, author of Climate and Evolution, influence on Black, 33-35 Matsuhashi, Dr., 131 McLean, Franklin C., viii, 50 McMurrich, J. Playfair, 16, 57-58 NECKLES, Heinrich, viii, 89 Nevitt, Adena; see Black, Mrs. Davidson OSBORN, H. F., 37, 42 Osborn Library, and de Terra's letter to Black, 125 PEARCE, Agnes, ix Pearce, R. M., letter to Black, 5455 Pei, Weng Chung: work at caves (1928), 96-97; on staff of Cenozoic Research Laboratory, 100; discovery of skull, 102-5; work after Black's death, 123, 127 Peking Man, name first used (1926), 84; 97-136

INDEX

Píen, M. M., 100 Piersol, W. H., viii, 15, 18 Piltdown find, 26-30 ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION: appoints Black to P.U.M.C., 4044; history of College, 43-45; ensures private property of staff in crisis, 82; funds for excavations, 85; funds for Black's Middle East trip, 119 Royal Society, Black elected to, 119-22 Rutherford, Lord, 24 SCHLOSSER, Max, 64, 89 Sinanthr&pus pekinensis; see Peking Man Siam, trip to, 56-57 Smith, Sir Grafton Elliot, 93, 98, 100-2; early life, 24-25; Black with, in Manchester, London, Piltdown; 26-29; visits ChouK'ou-tien, 113-15 Snyder, L. L., 10-11 Stevenson, Paul H., vii, 18-19, 35, 105, 117

145

biography of, 62; at Honan and Kansu, 72 Ting, V. K., 19, 123; Black meets, 60; at Honan and Kansu, 72; at Cenozoic Research Laboratory, 100 Todd, T. Wingate, 20-24, 39 VINCENT, George E., Black's letters to, on European trip, 69-70 WALKER, Frank W., 91 Wallace, W. S., vi, x, 12 Walmsley, L. C., ix Weidenreich, Franz, 128-31 Western Reserve University, 18-22, 32 Wilson, Sir Daniel, 3-4 Wilson, J. Tuzo, 112 Wiman, C., 65, 70 Wong Wen-hao, 60, 83-85, 89, 129 Woodward, Sir Arthur Smith, 28, 69 YOUNG, C. C., 96, 100, 103, 112, 123, 126

TANIGUCHI, Dr., 131 Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, 62, ZDANSKY, Otto, 54; work at ChouK'ou-tien, 65-66; two molars 74, 83, 100, 102, 105, 112, 123, found by, 83, 86 125, 127; at Piltdown, 29; short