1859.] on the Gorilla. 15 



the dorsal, deltoidal and anterior femoral, regions ; but on the limbs, 

 not in such proportion as to affect the impression of the general dark 

 colour, at first view. Near the margin of the vent are a few short 

 whitish hairs, as in the chimpanzee. The epiderm of the back showed 

 the effects of habitual resting, with that part against the trunk or branch 

 of a tree, occasioning the hair to be more or less rubbed off: the 

 epithelium was here very thick and tough. 



It is most probable, from the degree of admixture of different 

 coloured hairs above described, that a living gorilla seen in bright 

 sunlight, would in some positions reflect from its surface a colour much 

 more different from that of the chimpanzee than appears by a com- 

 parison of the skin of a dead specimen sent home in spirits. It can 

 hardly be doubted also, that age will make an appreciable difference 

 in the general coloration of the Troglodytes gorilla. 



The adult male gorilla measures five feet six inches from the sole 

 to the top of the head, the breadth across the shoulders is nearly three 

 feet, the length of the upper limb is three feet four inches, that of the 

 lower limb 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 lecturer 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 stu'flying 

 similarly preserved specimens, the rarity and importance of the species 

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

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

 rumana. 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. Professor 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 

 affinities. 



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? Professor Owen proceeded to grapple with 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 



