1859.] on the Gorilla. 25 



I infer that the last molar would have cut the gum as soon as, if not 

 before, the crown of the canine had been completely extricated. This 

 dental character, the conformation and relative size of the grinding 

 teeth, especially the fore-and-aft extent of the premolars, all indicate 

 the close affinity of the Dryopithecus with the Pliopiiliecus and exist- 

 ing gibbons ; and this, the sole legitimate deduction from the maxillary 

 and dental fossils, is corroborated by the fossil humerus, fig. 9, in the 

 above-cited plate. 



There is no law of correlation by which, from the portion of 

 jaw with teeth of the DryopUhecus, can be deduced the shape of 

 the nasal bones and orbits, the position and plane of the occi})ital 

 foramen, the presence of mastoid and vaginal processes, or other cranial 

 characters determinative of aftinity to man ; much less any ground for 

 inferring the proportions of the upper to the lower limbs, of the hume- 

 rus to the ulna, of the poUex to the manus, or the shape and develop- 

 ment of the iliac bones. All those characters which do determine the 

 closer resemblance and affinity of the genus Troglodytes to man, and 

 of the genus Hylobates to the tailed monkeys, are at present unknown 

 in respect of the Dryopithecus. A glance at fig. 5 ( Gorilla), and fig. 7 

 {Dryopithecus), of the plate of M. Lartet's memoir, would suffice to 

 teach their difierence of bulk, the gorilla being fully one-third larger. 

 The statement that the parts of the skeleton of the Dryopithecus as 

 yet known, viz., the two branches of the lower jaw and the humerus, 

 " are sufficient to show that in anatomical structure, as well as stature, 

 it came nearer to man than any quadrumanous species, living or fossil, 

 before known to zoologists*," is without the support of any adequate 

 fact, and in contravention of most of those to be deduced from M. 

 Lartet's figures of the fossils. Those parts of the Dryopithecus merely 

 show — and the humerus in a striking manner — its nearer approach to 

 the gibbons. The most probable conjecture being that it bore to then), 

 in regard to size, the like relations which Dr. Lund's Protopithecus 

 bore to the existing Mycetes. Whether, therefore, strata of such high 

 antiquity as the miocene may reveal to us " forms in any degree inter- 

 mediate between the chimpanzee and man " awaits an answer from dis- 

 coveries yet to be made ; and the anticipation that the fossil world 

 " may hereafter supply new osteological links between man and the 

 highest known quadrumana " may be kept in abeyance until that world 

 has furnislied us with the proofs that a species did formerly exist which 

 came as near to man as does the orang, the chimpanzee, or the gorilla. 



Of the nature and habits of the last-named species, which really 

 offers the nearest approach to man of any known ape, recent or fossil, 

 the lecturer had received many statements from individuals resident at 

 or visitors to the Gaboon, from which he selected the following as most 

 probable, or least questionable. 



Gorilla-land is a richly wooded extent of the western part of Africa, 

 traversed by the rivers Danger and Gaboon, and extending from the 



* Sir Chas. Lycll, Supplement to the Fifth Edition, of Manual of Elementary 

 Geology, 8vo., 1859, p. 14. 



