i88 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



the sake of his family with no hint of a wish that it be published, 

 even after his death. 



To the writer its presentation here appears as almost a sacred 

 duty, a duty to the man, to his family, to his university and to the 

 nation. 1 



TROGLODYTES GORILLA, SAVAGE 

 HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY 



The existence in Africa of a large ape, which without doubt 

 was the gorilla, was mentioned by Battell, 2 and by Bowdich in 

 his Mission to Ashantee, 3 but it does not appear that either of 

 them saw the animal. In April, 1847, the Rev. J. L. Wilson 

 brought to the notice of Dr. Thomas S. Savage, while the latter 

 was on a visit to Gaboon, the skull of a large ape. Dr. Savage 

 became convinced that it was not known to naturalists, and 

 was able to obtain through the aid of Mr. Wilson other crania 

 and various portions of the skeleton, including the pelvis and 

 some of the long bones. He also sent drawings of a male and 

 female skull to Professor Owen, who satisfied himself from them, 

 that the ape in question was not the pongo of Borneo, but 

 expressed (in a letter) the belief that the crania might prove to 

 be those of an old, adult male and female chimpanzee. He, 

 however, threw out the suggestion that as there were two species 

 of apes in Borneo, Africa might also possess two species. 



The collections of crania and bones belonging to Mr. Wilson 

 and Dr. Savage were placed by the later in my hands for de- 

 scription, Dr. Savage reserving for himself an account of the 



1 Were a dozen persons, ordinarily intelligent and well-informed, to assign 

 offhand the credit for introducing to science "the most portentous and 

 diabolic caricature of humanity that an atrabilious poet ever conceived," 

 probably at least one-half would name Huxley; three, Darwin; two might 

 name Owen, or perhaps one of these would recall the traveler, Du Chaillu; 

 certainly not more than one, if any, would mention either Savage or Wyman. 

 Even in the American edition of an ostensibly reliable work, Hartmann's 

 Anthropoid Apes (International Scientific Series, 1886), the index omits 

 Wyman's name; in the text (p. 5) it is misspelled; and his prior contribution 

 is recorded after that of Owen. 



2 Purchas, His Pilgrimes, London, 1625, Part II, p. 984. 



3 London, 4to, 1819, p. 440. 



