CHIMPANZEE 



CHINA 



183 



belonging to the same genus as tin* gorilla (T. 



/. The first historical notice of the chim- 

 panzee seems to he that given in an account of a 

 Carthaginian exploration of the north-west of 

 Afrii a, conducted l>v Hanno in 470 B.C. Along 

 wit It other anthropoid apes, it was known to the 

 Komaiis in their varied communications with 

 Africa. The first thorough investigation of the 

 anatomy wius made liy Tyson in l>!i!. Various 

 travellers gradually gathered information in regard 

 to its haliil-, ami raptured s] ..... imens were known 

 in France and England l>y the 18th century. The 

 structure of the animal has heen studied by several 

 famous anatiimists, such as Owen, Duvernoy, 

 I'.i-i-lioll', and Huxley ; and much information, both 

 historical and anatomical, will be conveniently 

 found in Professor R. Hartmann's Anthropoid 

 A/i-s (Inter. Se. Series, 1885). To this naturalist 

 much of our knowledge as to the exact anatomy 

 of the chimpanzee and related forms is due. For 

 more general considerations, Huxley's work en- 

 titled Man's Place in Nature may ne profitably 

 consulted. See also his Anatomy of Vertebrate 



Characteristics. As the general features of 

 Anthropoid Apes(q.v.) have been already sketched, 

 it will be enough to sum up the more striking 

 characteristics of the chimpanzee. The animal 

 stands about four feet high, has very dark, all but 

 black hair, a broad, leathery, reddish-brown face, 

 small nose, large mouth, protruding lips, large brow- 

 ridges, and small ears. The face has an angle of 

 '70 degrees. The head hangs down upon the chest. 





Chimpanzee (after Hartmann). 



There are no cheek -pouches. The arms are very 

 long, and reach the knee ; their span is about half 

 fa much again as the height. The hand is narrow, 

 but as long as the foot. The sole of the foot can 

 rest flatly on the ground, and the animal readily 

 stands or walks erect. But his favourite attitude 

 is leaning forward, and supporting himself on the 

 knuckles of the hand. The backbone begins to 

 exhibit the curves characteristic of man, and the 

 chimpanzee is alone among anthropoids in having 

 the spine of the second neck vertebra bifurcated as 

 in man. It has one pair of ribs in addition to the 

 twelve possessed by man. There is of course no 

 tail, nor are there any sitting-pads or ischial cal- 

 losities. ' The volume of the brain is about half 

 the minimum size of a normal human brain. All 

 the gyri ( ridges ) of the human brain are represented 



in the cerebral hemispheres of the chimpanzee ; bat 

 they are simpler and more symmetrical, and larger 

 in proportion t<> tin- brain.' 



llnlxts. The chimpuii/.ee is found on the coast 

 of Guinea and farther inland. It occupies a wider 

 area than the gorilla, and i- even said to have been 

 found in East Africa, to the south of Abyssinia. 

 It lives in forests, is an adept climber, but keep* a 

 good deal i > the ground. The diet consists mainly 

 of wild fruits ; but animal food seems to be occa- 

 sionally eaten. The chimpanzees live in families 

 or in small societies. They construct pent-houses 

 in the thick forest darkness, and the males are said 

 to pass the night below the family nest. They 

 make a great deal of noise, of a dreary and horrible 

 character, especially when provoked by other 

 monkeys. Though they generally flee at the sight 

 of man, they can with hands and teeth make them- 

 selves in extremity most formidable antagonists. 

 The natives shoot them with arrows or javelins, or 

 in recent days with firearms. The flesh is eaten by 

 the natives of some parts of Africa ; the skulls may 

 serve as fetiches. 



There is considerable dispute as to the species 

 or varieties of chimpanzee. Hartmann discusses 

 the question at length in the work already referred 

 to, describing one distinct variety in addition to 

 the typical Troglodytes niger, and admitting the 

 possibility of hybrids. Chimpanzees are occasionally 

 brought to European zoological gardens, but rarely 

 stand the climate for more than two or three years. 

 They are known to exhibit great cleverness, and 

 admit of some education. 



China. The Chinese Empire, consisting of 

 China Proper and Manchuria (q.v.), with ite 

 dependencies of Mongolia, I-li, and Tibet (q.v.), 

 embraces a vast territory in Eastern Asia only 

 inferior in extent to the dominions of Great Britain 

 and Russia. The dependencies are not colonies, 

 but subject territories ; and China Proper itself, 

 indeed, has been a subject territory of Manchuria 

 since 1644. It will be convenient, however, to 

 confine ourselves in this article to the former. 



China is not known among the people them- 

 selves as the designation of the country, and 

 the use of the term is spreading among them 

 only through its all but universal employment by 

 other nations. In the oldest classical writings 

 the country is called HwA Hsta, 'The Flowery 

 Hsia.' Chung Kwo, 'The Middle State,' or king- 

 dom, grew up in the feudal period as a name for 

 the royal domain in the midst of the other states, 

 or for those states as a whole in the midst of the 

 uncivilised states around them. The idea of its 

 being ' in the middle of the earth ' did not enter 

 into the designation, though the assumption of 

 universal sovereignty, deiure if not de facto, that 

 has been so injurious to the nation, appears in the 

 very ancient names Tien hsiA, 'all beneath the 

 sky,' and Sze Hai, 'all within the four seas.' In 

 the treaties with western nations concluded in the 

 present century the empire is called by the title of 

 the reigning dynasty, ' the Kingdom of the Great 

 Pure (dynasty ) ;' and this is in accordance with the 

 practice of Chinese writers, who are fond of calling 

 their country ' the Land of Han,' and ' the Hills of 

 T'ang, 1 from the two great dynasties so named. 



Serica, Sera, and beres, in Ptolemy and other 

 ancient geographers, indicate China and the 

 Chinese as the country and people producing rilk, 

 being taken from sze (silk ), originally the pictorial 

 symbol of a packet of cocoons. 



Cathay, a poetical name with us, and still 

 apparent in the Russian name for China (Kitai), 

 came into use as a designation for the northern 

 part of the empire through Marco Polo and other 

 medieval writers. It was the Persian designation 

 of the Tartar K'itan tribes which contended with 



