Keith, Sir Arthur, 1866–1955, British anatomist, b. Aberdeen, Scotland, educated at the Univ. of Aberdeen, University College, London, and the Univ. of Leipzig. He became conservator of the museum and professor at the Royal College of Surgeons (1908), then professor of physiology at the Royal Institution, London (1917–23). From 1933 he carried out research on tuberculosis as master of the Buckston Browne Research Farm at Downe, Kent. He also applied his knowledge of anatomy to an influential study of human origins, reconstructing prehistoric man based on fossil remains from Europe and N Africa. His writings include Human Embryology and Morphology (1902, 6th ed. 1949), The Antiquity of Man (1915, 2d ed. 1925), and A New Theory of Human Evolution (1948).
See his autobiography (1950).
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