G. Elliot Smith, anatomist and anthropologist, studied
medicine at the University of Sydney and qualified as Bachelor of Medicine (MB)
and Master in Surgery (ChM) in 1892. In 1895 he was awarded the degree Doctor
of Medicine (MD) with a thesis on the anatomy of the brain of non-placental
mammals. He proceeded to England in 1896, where he was known mainly by the
surname Elliot Smith. In Cambridge he conducted research at St John's College,
University of Cambridge, publishing many anatomical papers on the brains of
both living and extinct species, while also studying human palaeopathology. He
was awarded the degrees Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Master of Arts (MA) in 1898
and 1903 respectively. From 1900 to 1909 he was the first chairholder of anatomy at the Cairo
School of Medicine and investigated the brains of Egyptian mummies. He was the
first researcher to X-ray a mummy.
In 1909 Smith was appointed Professor of Anatomy at the
University of Manchester and ten years later Professor of Anatomy at University
College, London, where he remained until his retirement in 1936. He was the
leading expert on the brain during these years, but also a controversial
figure, often in conflict with anthropologists and historians over his published
views on topics such as the ancient Egyptian civilisation, the diffusion of
culture, early humans, human evolution, the origins of civilisation and
European history. He supported the view that humans originated in Europe,
rather than in Asia or Africa, and that human culture had originated in ancient
Egypt and from there diffused throughout the world. He was elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society in 1907 and was knighted in 1934. In 1912 he received the Royal
Medal of the Royal Society, in 1930 the Honorary Gold Medal of the Royal
College of Surgeons, and in 1936 the Huxley Memorial Medal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
Smith studied an endocranial cast of Boskop man, skeletal
remains found some 16 km north of Potchefstroom in 1913, and reported that the
skull included both Neanderthaloid and Sapient human features. His findings
were published in 'Note upon the endocranial cast obtained from the ancient
calvaria found at Boskop, Transvaal' in the Transactions
of the Royal Society of South Africa (1917-1918, Vol. 6, pp. 15-18).
