209 



April 21, 1852. 



The President in the Chair. 



Dr. Kneeland announced the donation of a nearly com- 

 plete skeleton of the great Chimpanzee, Troglodytes gorilla, 

 by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 

 sions, and read a paper describing it, of which the following 

 is an abstract. 



It is a nearly complete skeleton, consisting of a fine skull, 

 with lower jaw, and teeth complete ; all the vertebrse, excepting 

 the atlas ; the pelvis ; both scapuloe and clavicles ; the arm and 

 forearm of left side, the ulna of right side with radius and 

 humerus broken ; the femur, tibia, and astragalus of right side, 

 and the head and upper portion of left femur ; all the ribs, ex- 

 cept two on the left side ; a few bones of the hand and foot, 

 and the upper portion of the sternum. 



The cranium, of immense size and strength, measured in its 

 internal capacity only twenty-seven cubic inches, eight inches 

 less than another specimen belonging to the Society, and only 

 half an inch more than a very young male T. niger. It is that 

 of an old male, the crests being exceedingly developed. 



The spinous processes of the cervical vertebrse are very long, 

 the shortest being two and one eighth inches, the longest three 

 and three fourths inches. The dorsal vertebrse are fourteen in 

 number, the pairs of ribs being the same ; the lumbar vertebrse 

 are three only, less than in any of the higher mammals. The 

 sacrum has a decided anterior concavity. The pelvis comes 

 nearer than in any of the Quadrumana to that of man ; it is 

 very much larger, measuring sixteen and a half inches between 

 the anterior spinous processes. The scapulae, clavicles, sternum, 

 ribs, all resemble the human ; the humerus is three inches 

 longer, and proportionally larger and heavier ; the bones of the 

 forearm are more curved ; the femur and tibia are shorter than 

 in man. 



All the bones are very solid and heavy ; many of them bear 

 marks of fracture and bony growths, indicating that this was a 

 veteran male, who had seen many a hard fight. The height of 



PROCEEDINGS B. S. N. H. 14 OCTOBER, 1852. 



