384 Zoological Society : — 



that of the lower limh is two feet four inches ; the length of the head 

 and trunk is three feet six inches, whilst the same dimension in man 

 does not average three feet. 



In the foregoing remarks the author had given the results of direct 

 observations made on the first and only entire specimen of the Gorilla 

 which had reached England. At the period when they were made, 

 no other description of its external characters had reached him ; and 

 if the majority of them be found to agree with previously recorded 

 observations by naturalists enjoying earlier opportunities of studying 

 similarly preserved specimens, the rarity and importance of the species 

 might excuse, if it did not justifj'', a second description from direct 

 scrutiny of a new specimen by an old observer of the anthropoid 

 Quadrumana. A much more important labour, however, remained. 

 The accurate record of facts in natural history was one and a good 

 aim ; the deduction of their true consequences was a better. Pro- 

 fessor Owen proceeded, therefore, to reconsider the conclusions from 

 which his experienced French and American fellow-labourers in 

 natural history differed from him, and in which it seemed he stood 

 alone. 



The first — it may be called the supreme — question in regard to the 

 Gorilla was, its place in the scale of nature, and its true and precise 

 afiinities. 



Is it or not the nearest of kin to human kind ? Does it form, like 

 the Chimpanzee and Orang, a distinct genus in the anthropoid or 

 knuckle-walking group of apes ? Are these apes, or are the long-armed 

 Gibbons, more nearly related to the genus Homo ? Of the broad- 

 breast-boned quadrumana, are the knuckle-walkers or the brachiators, 

 i.e. the long-armed Gibbons, most nearly and essentially related to 

 the human subject ? The author proceeded to discuss the first as the 

 most important question. 



At the first aspect, whether of the entire animal or of the skeleton, 

 he freely admitted that the Gorilla strikes the observer as being a 

 much more bestial and brutish animal than the Chimpanzee. All the 

 features that relate to the wielding of the strong jaws and large 

 canines are exaggerated ; the evidence of brain is less, its chamber is 

 more masked by the outgrowth of the strong occipital and other 

 cranial ridges. But the impression so made — that the Gorilla is 

 less like Man — is the same which is derived from comparing a young 

 with an adult Chimpanzee, or some small tailless monkey with a full- 

 grown male Orang or Chimpanzee. Taking the characters that cause 

 that impression at a first inspection of the Gorilla, most of the small 

 South American monkeys are more anthropoid than it ; they have a 

 proportionally larger and more human-shaped cranium, much less 

 prominent jaws, with more equable teeth. 



Referring to the skeletons of the adult males of the Gorilla, Chim- 

 panzee, Orang, and Gibbon, Professor Owen remarked that the glo- 

 bular cranium of the last, and its superior size compared with the 

 jaws and teeth, seemed to show the Gibbons to be more nearly akin 

 to man than are the larger tailless Apes. And this conclusion had 

 been adopted by a distinguished French palaeontologist, M. Lartet, 



