2 9 S PLEASANT WA YS IN SCIENCE. 



gorilla lately at the Westminster Aquarium, the pro- 

 prietors of this interesting creature showed a more accurate 

 judgment of the meaning of Purchas's narrative than Du 

 Chaillu showed of Hanno's account, in calling the great 

 anthropoid ape of the Gulf of Guinea a gorilla. 



I propose here briefly to sketch the peculiarities of the 

 four apes which approach nearest in form to man the 

 gorilla, the chimpanzee, the orang-outang, and the gibbon ; 

 and then, though not dealing generally with the question 

 of our relationship to these non-speaking (and, in some 

 respects, perhaps, "unspeakable") animals, to touch on 

 some points connected with this question, and to point out 

 some errors which are very commonly entertained on the 

 subject 



It may be well, in the first place, to point out that the 

 terms " ape," " baboon," and " monkey " are no longer 

 used as they were by the older naturalists. Formerly the 

 term " ape " was limited to tailless simians having no cheek- 

 pouches, and the same number of teeth as man ; the term 

 "baboon" to short-tailed simians with dog-shaped heads; 

 and the term "monkey," unless used generically, to the 

 long -tailed species. This was the usage suggested by Ray, 

 and adopted systematically thirty or forty years ago. But 

 it is no longer followed, though no uniform classification 

 has been substituted for the old arrangement Thus Mivart 

 divides the apes into two classes calling the first the 

 Simiada, or Old World apes ; and the second the Cebidcz, 

 or New World apes. He subdivides the Simiada into (i) 

 the SimifKB, including the gorilla, chimpanzee, orang, and 

 gibbon ; (2) the Semnopithecina ; and (3) the Cynopitheciruz ; 

 neither of which subdivisions will occupy much of our 

 attention here, save as respects the third subdivision of 

 the Cynopithccina, viz., the Cynocephali, which includes the 

 baboons. The other great division, the Cebida, or New 

 World apes, are for the most part very unlike the Old 

 World apes. None of them approach the gorilla or orang- 

 outang in size ; most of them are long-tailed ; and the 



