1859.] . on the Gorilla. 11 



same genus as the chimpanzee (Troglodytes), but he regards the latter 

 as more nearly allied to the human kind. 



Professors Duvernoy and Isidore GeofFroy St.Hilaire consider the 

 differences in the osteology, dentition, and outward character of the 

 gorilla to be of generic importance ; and they enter the species in the 

 zoological catalogues as Gorilla gina, the trivial name being that by 

 which the animal is called by the natives of Gaboon ; the French 

 naturalists also concur with the American in placing the gorilla below 

 the chimpanzee in the zoological scale ; and some have more lately 

 been disposed to place both below the siamangs, gibbons or long-armed 

 apes (Hylobates), 



Deferring the discussion of these questions, the lecturer, referring 

 to a spirited and accurate painting, life-size, of the adult male gorilla, 

 by Wolf, proceeded to describe the external characters of the animal, 

 as they were exhibited by the specimen preserved in spirits which had 

 shortly before been received at the British Museum, and had since 

 been admirably prepared and mounted by Mr. Bartlett, the well-known 

 taxidermist. The lecturer first called attention to the shortness, 

 almost absence, of neck, due to the backward position of the junction 

 of the head to the trunk, to the great length of the cervical spines, 

 causing the " nape" to project beyond the " occiput," to the great size 

 and elevation, of the scapulae, and to the oblique rising of the clavicles 

 from their sternal attachments to above the level of the angles of the 

 jaw. The brain-case, low and narrow, and the lofty ridges of the 

 skull, make the cranial profile pass in almost a straight line from the 

 occiput to the superorbital ridge, the prominence of which gives the 

 most forbidding feature to the physiognomy of the gorilla ; the thick 

 integument overlapping that ridge forming a scowling pent-house over 

 the eyes. The nose is more prominent than in the chimpanzee or 

 orang-utan, not only at its lower expanded part, but at its upper half, 

 where a slight prominence corresponds with that which the author had 

 previously pointed out in the nasal bones. The mouth is very wide, 

 the lips large, of uniform thickness, the upper one with a straight, as 

 if incised margin, not showing the coloured lining membrane when the 

 mouth is shut. The chin very short and receding, the muzzle very 

 prominent. The eyelids with eye-lashes, the eyes wider apart than in 

 the orang or chimpanzee ; no eyebrows ; but the hairy scalp continued 

 to the superorbital ridge. The ears smaller in proportion than in 

 man, much smaller than in the chimpanzee ; but the structure of the 

 auricle more like that of man : it was minutely described and com- 

 pared. On a direct front view of the face, the ears are on the same 

 parallel with the eyes. The teeth had been described in the lecturer's 

 former discourse.* The huge canines in the male give a most formi- 

 dable aspect to the beast : they were not fully developed in the 

 younger and entire specimen, now mounted. The profile of the trunk 



* " On the Anthropoid Apes : " Proceedings, R.I. Vol.'II. (1855^ p. 26 ; and in 

 the Transactions of the Zoological Society, 1848. 



