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VI. Contributions to the Natural History of the Anthropoid Apes. No. VIII. On the 

 External Characters of the Gorilla (Troglodytes Gorilla, Sav.). By Professor 

 Owen, F.R.S., F.Z.S., Sfc. 



Read January 11th, 1859. 



[Plates XLIIL— XLIX.] 



AFPER ten years' correspondence, appeals, and instructions, carried on with a view to 

 obtaining from the Gaboon the desired materials for completing our knowledge of the 

 external characters of the Gorilla, I am enabled to submit to the Society so much of the 

 desired information as can be had from the study of a young but nearly full-grown 

 male specimen (Pis. XLV. & XLVL), which reached the British Museum, preserved in 

 spirits, on the 10th of September, 1858. 



Before, however, proceeding to the description of this specimen, I may be permitted 

 briefly to recapitulate the steps which have led to the determination of the great anthro- 

 poid Ape of Africa, called Troglodytes Gorilla, of which but vague and uncertain indica- 

 tions had previously reached the scientific world. 



The first authentic information which I received of its existence was by a letter from 

 Dr. Savage, dated ' Gaboon River, West Africa,' April 24, 1847, enclosing a sketch of 

 the cranium, and requesting that the results of my comparison might be communicated 

 to him, which was done. 



In December 1847 I received from Bristol two skulls of the full-grown male, and one 

 of a female, descriptions of which, with the previous evidence which had reached me, 

 were communicated to the Zoological Society, February 22, 1848'. 



The skulls obtained by Dr. Savage at the Gaboon were taken by him to Boston, 

 U. S., and were described by the Doctor and Prof. Wyman in the ' Journal of the 

 Natural History Society of Boston ' (vol. v. 1847), and the name Troglodytes Gorilla was 

 proposed for the species. 



Translations of Dr. Wyman's and my papers being published in the ' Annates des 

 Sciences Naturelles,' the attention of Continental naturalists was strongly excited 

 toward this unexpected addition to the Mammalian class ; and the inducements held 

 out for the collection of specimens have led to the acquisition of additional materials 

 for completing the zoographical history of the animal which it seems now agreed to call 

 " Gorilla." Those which reached London previous to the present date enabled me to 

 communicate to the Zoological Society^ a description of the entire skeleton of the 

 Troglodytes Gorilla, since published, with illustrations, in the 'Transactions' of the 

 Society^, the main facts being previously recorded in my ' Descriptive Catalogue of the 

 ' Osteological Collection in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons,' 4to, 1853, 



' Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. iii. p. 381, pis. 58-63. ' Proc. Zool. Soc. Nov. 11, 1851. 



• Vol. iv. pt. iii. p. 75. pis. 26-30, pt. iv. p. 89. pis. 31-36, and vol. v. pt. i. p. 1. pis. 1 to 13. 

 VOL. V. PART IV. 2 K 



K. 



