THE "MISSING LINK" 



The hand of the chimpanzee is long and thin ; it is in 

 fact convertible into a hook for hanging on to branches ; 

 in the gorilla the hand is shorter and the fingers are 

 webbed at the base as in the human hand, to which 

 it bears considerable resemblance. It has been well 

 said that if the dictum, " Ex pede Herculem " is true, 

 so is the further evolution of that observation, " Ex 

 calce hominem." Now the gorilla has a better heel 

 than the chimpanzee ; and this again is associated 

 with the frequent travels of that animal upon the ground 

 in a more or less walking posture. Certain muscles 

 tell the same tale. Indeed we may fairly come to the 

 conclusion that the gorilla is much nearer to that 

 mysterious and at present totally unknown creature, 

 which first crossed ^the narrow line dividing the ape 

 from the man, than is the chimpanzee. Whether the 

 famous Pithecanthropus erectus of Dubois, whose bony 

 fragments were found in Java, is the " missing link " 

 or not, cannot be decided ; but it is unquestionably 

 a suitable candidate for that position so far as the top 

 of the skull enables us to form a judgment. Chimpan- 

 zees have been divided into more than one kind, and 

 such names as Anthropopithecus calvus, aubryi, kulu- 

 kamba, have been given to these varieties. The variety 

 which has the most claim to be regarded as an indepen- 

 dent form is that represented by the notorious Sally, 

 The species, if species it be, was brought home by du 

 Chaillu, and that specimen is now in the British Museum 

 at South Kensington. Sally's stuffed skin adorns Mr. 

 Rothschild's museum at Tring, while her brain reposes 

 in the University Museum at Oxford. The gorilla, 

 too, has been lately subdivided. In fact, it used to be 

 thought that both apes were limited in range to the 

 gloomy forests of the Gaboon. But it is now well 

 known, thanks to Emin Pasha and others, that the 

 chimpanzee goes much farther east, and so in all pro- 



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