Btcttanarn of Tmmatctt jtaturc. 125 



ralists consider that the Chimpanzee ap- 

 proximates more nearly in its general con- 

 formation to the human race. And yet how 

 wide the difference ! This animal is an in- 



habitant of Africa, and especially of the 

 coasts of Congo and Angola ; and travellers 

 who have visited those countries assure us 

 that in an adult state the Chimpanzees attain 

 the stature of man, and live in society in the 

 woods ; that they construct huts of the leaves 

 and branches of trees, to protect themselves 

 against the extreme heat of the sun and the 

 violence of the rains ; that they walk up- 

 right, arm themselves with clubs, and make 

 a formidable resistance against the attacks 

 of the largest and most powerful beasts. The 

 body of the Chimpanzee is covered with long 

 black hair on the head, shoulders, and back, 

 but much thinner on the breast and belly ; 

 the arms and legs are not so disproportionate 

 as those of the Oran-Outang, the fore-fingers 

 not quite touching the knees when the ani- 

 mal stands upright. The upper part of the 

 head is very flat, with a retiring forehead, 

 and a prominent bony ridge over the eye- 

 brows ; the mouth is wide, the ears large, 

 the nose flat, and the face of a blackish brown 

 colour. There is at present a female Chim- 

 panzee in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's 

 Park, supposed to be about ten years old : 

 she is remarkably docile, and performs cer- 

 tain actions with much apparent rationality. 

 How truly has it been said, that although 

 the gradations of Nature in the other parts 

 of her works are minute and imperceptible, 

 yet in the ascent from brutes to men the line 

 is strongly drawn, well marked, and decisive ! 

 In vain the Chimpanzee or Oran-Outang 

 may resemble Man in form, or may possess 

 the power of imitating his actions, it still 

 continues a wretched helpless creature ; and 

 whatever distant resemblance its internal 

 conformation may bear to the human, its 

 whole figure exhibits a picture sufficiently 

 mortifying to those who pride themselves 

 on personal appearances alone. The tongue 

 and all the organs of voice may be the same, 

 yet the animal is dumb ; the brain may be 

 formed_ in the same manner, yet the animal 

 is destitute of reason : an evident proof, as 

 Buffon beautifully observes, that no dispo- 

 sition of matter can constitute a mind ; and 

 that the body, how nicely soever constructed, 

 is constructed in vain, when no soul is in- 



fused into it for the purpose of directing its 

 operations. 



Mr. Newman furnishes the readers of the 

 "Zoologist" (1845) with the subjoined par- 

 ticulars : " A larger, stronger, and more ac- 

 tive Chimpanzee than any previously im- 

 ported, was lately consigned to Messrs. 

 Coleman, Flockhart, and Co., from the river 

 Nunez, near Sierra Leone. On its arrival 

 in the London Docks I paid it a visit, and 

 immediately communicated with Mr.Yarrell, 

 with a view to obtaining it for the Zoological 

 Society : the officials, however, were already 

 on the alert, and the creature has since been 

 purchased by the society for 300Z. The fol- 

 lowing paragraph, which has been circulated 

 in the London newspapers, was, I hear, 

 penned by one of the keepers : ' It is sin- 

 gular that she resists every attempt to cor- 

 rect her, fighting with the utmost deter- 

 mination ; every other animal, even the 

 Ourang, fears its keeper. The first day of 

 the Chimpanzee's arrival at the Gardens, 

 she tore out three of the strong iron bars of 

 her cage, which have been since strengthened. 

 A temporary nail was driven about half its 

 length, into a piece of wood, about six inches 

 long and three and a half square ; she held 

 the wood between her teeth, and doubling 

 the nail backwards and forwards, broke it 

 short off. When in a passion, she tears her 

 hair and rolls herself on the ground violently. 

 Her table is supplied from her keeper's, and 

 she shares in everything and anything he 

 has. She eats her egg with a spoon, takes 

 her grog daily, and, 'tis said, that when on 

 board ship she mixed the latter herself. She 

 will lock and unlock a door or drawer ; will 

 thread any needle ; she cannot be taken in 

 by the same thing twice, and will imitate 

 almost anything that is done before her. She 

 is considered by Professor Owen to be about 

 nine years old, which well agrees with all 

 accounts of her previous life. She weighs 

 52 Ibs. ; measures 2 feet 2 inches round the 

 chest, and is 3 feet 2 inches high ; or, as she 

 will not stand upright to be measured, pro- 

 bably her height is nearly 3 feet 6 inches.' 

 On making a more careful examination of 

 this animal in her present abode, I was par- 

 ticularly struck by her want of teeth. Only 

 one incisor and a few imperfect molars ap- 

 pear to remain. I observed her total ina- 

 bility to crack a nut, a feat performed by al- 

 most every other monkey with great adroit- 

 ness. Her manners now are perfectly quiet, 

 and there is no appearance of the ferocity 

 implied in the preceding quotation ; she was 

 gentle in the extreme, shaking hands in a 

 very cordial manner with some cliildren who 

 were present, and perfectly on the alert at 

 the sound of her name " Susan" when- 

 ever it was uttered. I presume the keeper 

 imagined that details of her ferocity would 



five her an interest in the eyes of the public, 

 have observed that the captains of Margate 

 steamers always tell their passengers that 

 the present is the roughest passage they ever 

 encountered ; so the visitors of this gentle 

 being are assured it is the most savage Chim- 

 panzee. The Captain, to whose care "Su- 

 san " was entrusted, told me that in taking 

 her meals on the passage home, she used 



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