262 PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE EXTERNAL CHARACTERS 



may be concluded that the third molar had also cut the gum, the crown being com- 

 pleted, but not the fangs. If the last molar had existed as a mere germ, it would more 

 probably have been preserved in the substance of the jaw. 



In a young Siamang, with the points of the permanent canines just protruding from 

 the socket, the crown of the last molar is complete, and on a level with the base of 

 that of the penultimate molar ; whence I infer that the last molar would have cut the 

 gum as soon as, if not before, the crown of the canine had been completely extricated. 

 This dental character, the conformation and relative size of the grinding teeth, espe- 

 cially the fore-and-aft extent of the premolars, all indicate the close affinity of the 

 Dryopithecus with the Pliopithecus and existing Gibbons ; and this, the sole legitimate 

 deduction from the maxillary and dental fossils, is corroborated by the fossil humerus, 

 fig. 9, in the above-cited Memoir. 



There is no law of correlation by which, from the portion of jaw with teeth of the 

 Dryopithecus, can be deduced the shape of the nasal bones and orbits, the position and 

 plane of the occipital foramen, the presence of mastoid and vaginal processes, or other 

 cranial characters determinative of affinity to Man ; much less any ground for inferring 

 the proportions of the upper to the lower limbs, of the humerus to the ulna, of the 

 poUex to the manus, or the shape and development of the ihac bones. All those 

 characters which do determine the closer resemblance and affinity of the genus Troglo- 

 dytes to Man, and of the genus Hylobates to the tailed Monkeys, are at present un- 

 known in respect of the Dryopithecus. A glance at fig. 5 (Gorilla) and fig. 7 (Dryo- 

 pithecus) of the plate of M. Lartet's memoir would suffice to teach their difference of 

 bulk, the Gorilla being fully one-third larger. The statement that the parts of the 

 skeleton of the Dryopithecus as yet known, viz. the two branches of the lower jaw and 

 the humerus, " are sufficient to show that in anatomical structure, as well as stature, 

 it came nearer to Man than any quadrumanous species, living or fossil, before known 

 to zoologists'," is without the support of any adequate fact, and in contravention of 

 most of those to be deduced from M. Lartet's figures of the fossils. Those parts of the 

 Dryopithecus merely show — and the humerus in a striking manner — its nearer approach 

 to the Gibbons ; the most probable conjecture being that it bore to them, in regard to 

 size, the like relations which Dr. Lund's Protopithecus bore to the existing Mycetes. 

 Whether, therefore, strata of such high antiquity as the miocene may reveal to us 

 " forms in any degree intermediate between the Chimpanzee and Man " awaits an 

 answer from discoveries yet to be made ; and the anticipation that the fossil world 

 " may hereafter supply new osteological links between Man and the highest known 

 Quadrumana^" must be kept in abeyance until that world has furnished us with the 

 proofs that a species did formerly exist which came as near to Man as does the Orang, 

 the Chimpanzee, or the Gorilla. 



' Sir Charles Lyell, • Supplement to the Fifth Edition of Manual of Elementary Geology,' 8vo. 1859, p. 14. 

 '- Ibid. 



