8 



upon the sides of the face. The greyish hairs are found mixed with 

 the dusky upon the dorsal, deltoidal and anterior femoral regions ; 

 but, on the limbs, not in such proportion as to affect the impres- 

 sion of the general dark colour, at first view. The hairs are wavy, 

 approaching to a woolly character. Near the margin of the vent 

 are a few short whitish hairs, as in the Chimpanzee. The epiderm 

 of the back showed the effects of habitual resting, with that part 

 against the trunk or branch of a tree, occasioning the hair to be more 

 or less rubbed off : the epiderm was here very thick and tough. 



It is most probable, from the degree of admixture of different 

 coloured hairs above described, that a living Gorilla seen in bright 

 sunlight, would in some positions reflect from its surface a colour 

 much more different from that of the Chimpanzee than appears by a 

 comparison of the skin of a dead specimen sent home in spirits. It 

 can hardly be doubted, also, that age will make an appreciable differ- 

 ence in the general coloration of the Troglodytes gorilla. 



The adult male Gorilla measures five feet six inches from the sole 

 to the top of the head, the breadth across the shoulders is nearly 

 three feet, the length of the upper limb is three feet four inches, 

 that of the lower limb is two feet four inches ; the length of the head 

 and trunk is three feet six inches, whilst the same dimension in man 

 does not average three feet. 



In the foregoing remarks the author had given the results of direct 

 observations made on the first and only entire specimen of the Gorilla 

 which had reached England. At the period when they were made, 

 no other description of its external characters had reached him ; and 

 if the majority of them be found to agree with previously recorded 

 observations by naturalists enjoying earlier opportunities of studying 

 similarly preserved specimens, the rarity and importance of the species 

 might excuse, if it did not justify, a second description from direct 

 scrutiny of a new specimen by an old observer of the anthropoid 

 Quadrumana. A much more important labour, however, remained. 

 The accurate record of facts in natural history was one and a good 

 aim ; the deduction of their true consequences was a better. Pro- 

 fessor Owen proceeded, therefore, to reconsider the conclusions from 

 which his experienced French and American fellow-labourers in 

 natural history differed from him, and in which it seemed he stood 

 alone. 



The first-— it may be called the supreme — question in regard to the 

 Gorilla was, its place in the scale of nature, and its true and precise 

 affinities. 



Is it or not the nearest of kin to human kind ? Does it form, like 

 the Chimpanzee and Orang, a distinct genus in the anthropoid or 

 knuckle-walking group of apes ? Are these apes, or are the long-armed 

 Gibbons, more nearly related to the genus Homo ? Of the broad- 

 breast-boned quadrumana, are the knuckle-walkers or the brachiators, 

 i.e. the long-armed Gibbons, most nearly and essentially related to 

 the human subject ? The author proceeded to discuss the first as the 

 most important question. 



At the first aspect, whether of the entire animal or of the skeleton, 



