82 ME. CHABLESWOETH 



BEMABK8 ON THE STBUGTUliE OF THE GORILLA. 

 By E. Chaeleswoeth, Esq., F.G.S. 



I SHOULD not have brought forward the subject of the 

 gorilla had I not been led to do so by two different 

 reasons. Only a few weeks ago two leading daily papers con- 

 tained long and interesting articles on the gorilla. What 

 led those widely-circulated papers to treat their readers to a 

 history of the gorilla, was that a few days before one of those 

 extraordinary animals had arrived at Liverpool alive, a fact 

 which, of course, to all naturalists, was one of great import- 

 ance ; unhappily, that gorilla did not live more than forty- 

 eight hours after its arrival, and it was owing to its death 

 and the consequent lamentations that went on in the natural 

 history world, that the papers I have referred to published 

 those articles. The other reason why I have brought the 

 subject forward is that the specimen of the gorilla I now 

 produce — which is one of the most remarkable that has ever 

 reached this country, as far as the skeleton is concerned — will 

 be out of my possession to-morrow. It would have been sent 

 off to-night to Southport, but, hearing of this meeting, I 

 thought it would interest the members of the Victoria 

 Institute to examine such a unique specimen. Another 

 matter of painful interest connected with this subject has 

 reference to the late Dr. Carpenter, of whose recent sad death 

 I dare say most of my hearers are aware. More than half a 

 century ago (in 1835), our life-long friendship began, as co- 

 members of the General Committee, at a meeting of the 

 British Association held at Bristol, and it was only the other 

 day that the last address he gave before his fatal accident was 

 delivered at the University of London, on this very skeleton. 

 He then mentioned that, when the first skull of a gorilla reached 

 this country, it was taken to the Bristol Museum, where he and 

 other naturalists were certain they had in their possession a 

 grand addition to what was called the quadrumanous fauna of 

 the world — that is to say, the ape and monkey tribe. That skull 

 remained in the Bristol Museum for a number of years before 

 any announcement was made to the world of the nature of 

 the prize they had obtained. In the course of time more 



