TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 155 



0)1 some Objects of Natural History from the Collection of M. Du Chaillu. 

 Brj Professor Oweit, M.D., LL.D., F.B.S. 



Tlie author's first knowledge of this zoological collection was derived from a letter 

 sent by M. Du Chaillu, dated Gaboou, June 13, 1859, and received in the British 

 Museum in August 1859, in which M. Du Chaillu specified the skins and skele- 

 tons of the gorilla or n'gena, kooloo-kamba, nschiego, and nschiego-mbovie which 

 lie had collected, offering them foV sale, with other varieties, to the British Museum. 

 Professor Owen replied, recommending the transmission of the collection to London 

 for inspection, with which recoiiimeiidation M. Du Chaillu complied, bringing with 

 him, in 1861, all the varieties he had named, with other objects of natiu'al history, 

 from which he permitted selections to be made. The skins of the adidt male and 

 female of the yoimg of the Trof/lodi/fcs (/orilla afforded ample evidence of the true 

 coloration of the species. In the male, the rufo-griseous hair extends over the 

 scalp and nape, terminating in a point upon the back. The pi-evalent gi-ey colom', 

 produced by alternate fuscous and light-grey tracts of each hair, extends over 

 the back, the hair becoming longer upon the nates and upon the thighs. The dark 

 fuscous colour gradually prevails as the hair extends down the leg to the ankle. 

 The long hair of the arm and forearm presents the dark fuscous colour ; the same 

 tint extends from below the axilla downwards and forwards upon the abdomen, 

 where the darker tint contrasts with the lighter grey upon the back. The scanty 

 hair of the cheeks and chin is dark ; the pigment of the naked skin of the face is 

 black. The breast is almost naked ; and the hair is worn short or partially nibbed 

 off' across the back, over the upper border of the iliac bones, in consequence, as it 

 appears, of the habit ascribed by M. Du Chaillu to the gTeat male gorilla of sleeping 

 at the foot of a ti-ee, resting its back against the trunk. Professor Owen proceeded 

 to describe the colour of the female gorilla, which, it appears, was generally darker 

 and of a more rufous tint than the male. In one female the rufous coloiu" so pre- 

 vailed as to induce M. Du Chaillu to note it as a 'red-rumped variety.' In the 

 young male gorilla, 2 ft. 6 in. in height, 1 ft. 7 in. in the lenglh of the head and 

 trunk, and 11 inches across the shoulder, the calvarium is covered with a well-de- 

 fined " skidl-cap" of reddish-coloured hair. The back part of the head, behind 

 the ears, the temples, and chin are clothed with that mixtiu'e of fuscous bro-^Ti and 

 grey hair which covers with a vaiying depth of tint the trunk, ai-ms, and thighs. 

 Tlie naked part of the skin of the face appears to have been black, or of a veiy 

 dark leaden-colour ; a few scattered straight hairs, mostly black, represent the 

 eyebrows. A naiTow moustache borders the upper lip ; the whole of the lower lip 

 and sides of the head are covered with hair of the prevailing grey fuscous colour. 

 Tlie rich series of skulls and skeletons brought home by M. Du ChaiUu illustrate 

 some important phases of dentition. These phases were specified by Professor 

 Owen at length. The deciduous or milk dentition, it was remarked, was, in 

 the youngest specimen of the gorilla, something similar to that of the human 

 child, but an interspace equal to half the breadth of the outer incisor divides that 

 tooth from the canine, and the crown of the canine descends nearly two lines 

 below that of the contiguous milk molar. The deciduous molars dififered from 

 those of the human child in the more pointed shape of the fii'st, and much larger 

 size of the second. The dentition of the yoimg gorilla coiTesponds best with that 

 exemplified in the himian child between the eighth and tenth years ; the difference, 

 however, is shown in the complete placing of the true molar, whilst the premolar 

 series is incomplete. It was worthy of remark, also, that in both specimens ex- 

 amined the premolars of the upper jaw had preceded those of the lower jaw, and 

 that the hind premolar had come into place before the front one. In the later de- 

 velopment of the canines and the earlier development of the second molars of the 

 second dentition the gorilla differs, like the chimpanzee and the orang.?, from the 

 human order of dental development and succession. An opportunity of observino- 

 this order in the lower races of mankind is rare. Professor Owen availed himself 

 of the opportunity in the case of the male and female so-called dwarf Earthmen 

 from South Africa, exhibited in London in 1855. He found their dentition re- 

 spectively at the phase indicative of the ago of from seven to nine in the Eno-lish 

 child ; other indications agi-eed with this evidence of immatm-ity. The children 

 were of the dwarf Boschisnian race, and were dressed and exhibited as adults. 



