Arthur Keith
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Sir Arthur Keith (February 5, 1866—January 7, 1955) was a Scottish anatomist and anthropologist, and was a leading figure in the study of Human fossils.
Born in Aberdeen, he obtained a Bachelor of Medicine at the University of Aberdeen in 1888. He travelled to Siam on a gold mining trip, and upon his return to Britain he studied anatomy. In 1894, he was made a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
He studied primate skulls, and in 1897 he published An Introduction to the Study of Anthropoid Apes. His next works were Human Embryology and Morphology (1902), Ancient Types of Man (1911), and The Antiquity of Man (1915).
He was knighted in 1921, and he published New Discoveries in 1931. In 1932, he helped found a research institute in Downe, Kent, where he worked until his death.
Keith was a strong proponent of the Piltdown Man, and he is suspected to be a co-conspirator of the hoax along with Charles Dawson. Piltdown: A Scientific Forgery, written by Frank Spencer after completing the research of Ian Langham, an Australian historian of science who suspected Keith before his death in 1984, explored the link between Keith and Dawson and suggests it was Keith who prepared the fake specimens for Dawson to plant.
