Frof. Owen on the Gorilla. 393 



seems to be less developed than in the male Chimpanzee, Gorilla, or 

 Orang ; in which character the fossil, if it belonged to a male, makes 

 a nearer approach to the human type : but it is one which many of 

 the inferior monkeys also exhibit, and is by no means to be trusted 

 as significant of true affinity, supposing even the sex of the fossil to 

 be known as being male. 



The shaft of the humerus, found with the jaw, is peculiarly 

 rounded, as it is in the Gibbons and Sloths, and offers none of those 

 angularities and ridges which make the same bone in the Chimpanzee 

 and Orang come so much nearer in shape to the humerus of the 

 human subject. The fore part of the jaw, as in the Siamang, is more 

 nearly vertical than in the Gorilla or Chimpanzee ; but whether the 

 back part of the jaw may not have departed in a greater degree from 

 the human type than the fore part approaches it, as is the case in 

 the Siamang, the state of the fossil does not allow of determining. 

 One significant character is, however, present, — the shape of the 

 fore part of the coronoid process. It is slightly convex forwards, 

 which causes the angle it forms with the alveolar border to be less open. 

 The same character is present in the Gibbons. The front margin 

 of the lower half of the coronoid process in Man is concave, as it is 

 likewise in the Gorilla and Chimpanzee. Prof. Owen was acquainted 

 with this interesting fossil, referred to a genus called Dryopithecus, 

 only by the figures published in the 43rd volume of the ' Comptes 

 Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences.' From these it appears that 

 the canine, two premolars, and first and second true molars, are in 

 place ; the socket of the third molar is empty, but widely open above ; 

 from which the author concludes that the third molar had also cut 

 the gum, the crown being completed, but not the fangs. If the last 

 molar had existed as a mere germ, it would more probably have been 

 pi*eserved in the substance of the jaw. 



In a young Siamang, with the points of the permanent canines 

 just protruding from the socket, exhibited by Prof. Owen, the crown 

 of the last molar was complete, and on a level with the base of that of 

 the penultimate molar ; whence he inferred that the last molar would 

 have cut the gum as soon as, if not before, the crown of the canine 

 had been completely extricated. This dental character, the confor- 

 mation and relative size of the grinding teeth, especially the fore 

 and aft extent of the premolars, all indicate the close affinity of the 

 Dryopithecus with the Pliopithecus and existing Gibbons ; and this, 

 the sole legitimate deduction from the maxillary and dental fossils, 

 is corroborated by the fossil humerus, fig. 9, in the above-cited plate. 

 There is no law of correlation, by which, from the portion of jaw 

 with teeth of the Dryopithecus, can be deduced the shape of the 

 nasal bones and orbits, the position and plane of the occipital fora- 

 men, the presence of mastoid and vaginal processes, or other crauial 

 characters determinative of affinity to Man ; much less any ground 

 for inferring the proportions of the upper to the lower limbs, of the 

 humerus to the ulna, of the pollex to the manus, or the shape and 

 development of the iliac bones. All those characters which do de- 

 termine the closer resemblance and affinity of the genus Troglodytes 



