ON THE STRUCTURE 0¥ THE GORILLA. 83 



specimens camo over, and these fell into the hands of Sir 

 Richard Owen, who wrote a series of most elaboi^ate papers 

 on this new and grand wild man of the woods, entitled 

 ''The Gorilla^' : these papers appeared in the transactions of 

 the Zoological Society. 



The next step in the history of the gorilla was the work by 

 M. du Chaillu, in which some say he drew on his imagination 

 when giving an account of his gorilla experiences. Yet we do 

 know that as regards its structure — as shown by its skeleton 

 — it is one of the most formidable creatures in existence. I do 

 not know whether I might give you the degree of relationship 

 the gorilla bears to the longer known orang, or the still longer 

 known chimpanzee ; but 1 will mention two or three special 

 points on which it differs from man. In Darwin^s theory of 

 evolution, man is represented as the last forged link in a 

 chain of life forms, starting from sea slugs or still lower organ- 

 isms, and ascending step by step in the scale of organisation 

 until the monkey and ape tribes are reached ; and finally 

 man. Now, in this evolution theory the gorilla must have a 

 prominent place, seeing that so great an authority as Sir R. 

 Owen considers the gorilla the most human like of the ape 

 family. But the structural points in which the gorilla differs 

 from man are very strongly marked, yet it must be borne 

 in mind that, although these differences are very formidable 

 and wide, there might still be a possibility that, as our 

 knowledge of the gorilla has come to us after hundreds of 

 years of research in Africa, there may be other forms of the 

 ape family, still to be made known, that come even nearer to 

 man than the gorilla, and that in the fossil state there may 

 be found an ape still more close. I put that before you 

 merely as a possibility. The main diff'erences between the 

 gorilla and man are these : in the first place, there is an 

 enormous disproportion between the brain cavities in the 

 skull of the gorilla and that of man. Looking at the skull of 

 the gorilla in a casual way, you would be inclined to say it 

 was nearly as large as that of a human being ; but this 

 approximation is deceptive, being principally due to the extra- 

 ordinary thickness of the skull. When, however, you take it 

 in sections, and compare the brain cavities of the two 

 skulls, you will at once see the wide difference between the 

 cranium of the human being and that of the gorilla. So 

 wide, indeed, is that difference, that it is in the proportion of 

 something about 40 to 100 ; or, in other words, if the brain of 

 man weighed 100 oz., that of the gorilla would weigh near 

 40 oz. When we consider what tho relation of brain to mind 

 is, we are at once enabled to understand, from this one fact. 



