16 



In a young Siamang, with the points of the permanent canines 

 just protruding from the socket, exhibited by Prof. Owen, the crown 

 of the last molar was complete, and on a level with the base of that of 

 the penultimate molar ; whence he inferred 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 confor- 

 mation and relative size of the grinding teeth, especially the fore 

 and aft extent of the premolars, all indicate the close affinity of the 

 Bryopithecus 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 plate. 



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

 with teeth of the Bryopithecus, can be deduced the shape of the 

 nasal bones and orbits, the position and plane of the occipital fora- 

 men, 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 pollex to the manus, or the shape and 

 development of the iliac bones. All those characters which do de- 

 termine the closer resemblance and affinity of the genus Troglodytes 

 to man, and of the genus Hylohates to the tailed monkeys, are at 

 present unknown in respect of the Bryopithecus. A glance at fig. 5 

 (Gorilla), and fig. 7 (Bryopithecus), 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 Bryopithecus 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 zoolo- 

 gists is without the support of any adequate fact, and in contra- 

 vention of most of those to be deduced from M. Lartet's figures of 

 the fossils. Those parts of the Bryopithecus 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 Quadrumanaf" 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. 



Of the nature and habits of the last-named species, which really 

 offers the nearest approach to man of any known ape, recent or 

 fossil, the author had received many statements from individuals 

 resident at or visitors to the Gaboon, from which he selected the 

 following as most probable, or least questionable. 



* Lyell (Sir Charles), < Supplement to the Fifth Edition of Manual of Ele- 

 mentary Geology,' 8vo, 1859, p. 14. t Ibid. 



