MAN AND HIS STRUCTURAL AFFINITIES. 431 



the arms are proportionally longer, and the legs shorter, than in the 

 average man. The face is very human from the structure and position 

 of the eyes and ears. A tail, external to the rump, is entirely wanting. 

 The body is covered with sparse and soft hair, except the face, toes, 

 palms, and soles, which are bare. The species which has been written 

 about the most, and about which, strange to say, we know the least, is 

 the gorilla ( Gorilla Savagei). Whether this ape was the species called 

 by this name two thousand j-ears ago by Hanno is doubtful and of no 

 importance. 



Wilson and Savage, two American missionaries, seem to have been 

 the first, in 1846 and 1847, to bring us certain information of this com- 

 paratively near relative of ours. I do not think that we are grateful for 

 the discovery. Generally speaking, we could have dispensed with this 

 satire upon ourselves, although we have no responsibility in the case. 

 At any rate, we can appreciate one value of missionary labor. Ameri- 

 can missionaries, by their intelligence and perseverance, have given us 

 invaluable information from time to time concerning countries difficult 

 of access, and their strange inhabitants. 



i 



Fig. 1. Head of Young Male Gorilla from Hamburg Museum. (From a photograph of 



alcoholic specimen.) 



Since this discovery of the gorilla, the animal has been written 

 about by several travelers. The accounts of personal encounter fur- 

 nishedby Du Chaillu are now known to be largely fanciful ; and Win- 



