THE GORILLA AND OTHER APES* 301 



Still it seems tolerably clear that the choice as to the race 

 of apes which must be regarded as first in intelligence, and 

 therefore as on the whole the most manlike, rests between 

 the orang-outang and the chimpanzee. " In the world of 

 science, as in that of politics," said Professor Rolleston in 

 1862, " France and England have occasionally differed as to 

 their choice between rival candidates for royalty. If either 

 hereditary claims or personal merits affect at all the right of 

 succession, beyond a question the gorilla is but a pretender, 

 and one or other of the two (other) candidates the true 

 prince. There is a graceful as well as an ungraceful way of 

 withdrawing from a false position, and the British public will 

 adopt the graceful course by accepting forthwith and hence- 

 forth the French candidate " the orang-outang. If this 

 were intended as prophecy, it has not been fulfilled by the 

 event, for the gorilla is still regarded by most British natur- 

 alists as the ape which comes on the whole nearest to man ; 

 but probably, in saying " the British public will adopt the 

 graceful course " in accepting the orang-outang as " the king 

 of the Simiadse," Professor Rolleston meant only that that 

 course would be graceful if adopted. 



Before the discovery of the gorilla, the chimpanzee was 

 usually regarded as next to man in the scale of the animal 

 creation. It was Cuvier who first maintaine'd the claim of 

 the orang-outang to this position. Cuvier's opinion was 

 based on the greater development of the orang-outang's 

 brain, and the height of its forehead. But these marks of 

 superiority belong to the orang only when young. The 

 adult orang seems to be inferior, or at least not superior, to 

 the chimpanzee as respects cerebral formation, and in other 

 respects seems less to resemble man. The proportions of 

 his body, his long arms, high shoulders, deformed neck, and 

 imperfect ears are opposed to its claims to be regarded as 

 manlike. In all these respects, save one, the chimpanzee 

 seems to be greatly its superior. (The ear of the chimpanzee 

 is large, and not placed as with us : that of the gorilla is 

 much more like man's.) 



