Skeleton 0/ the Gorilki, 35 



I always regard our Natural History collection in the 

 National Museum. Nor can I omit to notice the two other 

 glories of the colony, the Public Library and Botanic Gardens. 

 Long may those who preside over museum, library, and 

 gardens, live to reap the honour that is their due. 



Of the two Gorilla skeletons in the National Museum, I 

 have made measurements, a table of which will be appended 

 to this paper, but which would be too long and wearisome 

 for your audience. I may observe, however, that the height 

 of the male skeleton as it now stands is five feet two inches ; 

 that of the female, in the attitude of a quadruped, two feet 

 ten inches. There is some difficulty in making a coiTect 

 estimate of the height of the living animal from an examin- 

 ation of the articulated skeleton, but we can make a good 

 approximation. I should say, then, that this male would 

 have measured, from the top of the skull to the sole of the 

 foot, at least six feet. I have compared all my measure- 

 ments of the separate bones with those given by Du Chaillu 

 of a gorilla which, when shot, measured five feet eight inches 

 extreme length. In this male there is a slight increase in 

 some of the dmiensions of the skull ; thus the occipital crest 

 is higher, there is an ccclditional vertebra, and the feraur is 

 a little longer. The skull of the male difiers from that of 

 Man in possessing this enormous sagittal crest. This little 

 male Macaque* has a similar, though not so prominent a one. 

 In the female it is absent, but a rough line, meeting at the 

 vertex, indicates its rudimentary character. It is a sexual 

 distinction not existing in the young of either sex of gorilla 

 or macaque. Its use is for the attachment of a powerful 

 muscle, with the excessive development of which it rises to 

 move the lower jaw, as in biting. It accompanies a similar 

 excessive development of the canines in the male. In the 

 human skull it is only a rough curved line, situated altogether 

 at the side, the greater part of the broad roof lying above it. 

 It is the difference of situation, and not the height to which 

 this crest rises, that is of importance in distinguishing the 

 ape's from the hump^n skull. This great crest meets another, 

 the Uimbdoidal ; it is seen in this male macaque, and also, 

 though much less prominent, in the female. No simi- 

 lar ridge exists in man, the occipital and parietal bones 

 being united by suture. Beneath this ridge the posterior 



* Skeletons of Man and of Macaque were exhibited for purposes of 

 comparison. 



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