2 



vol. v., 1847, and the name Troglodytes gorilla was proposed for the 

 species, the discovery of which is due to Dr. P. S. Savage. 



Translations of Dr. Wyman's and Prof. Owen's papers being pub- 

 lished in the 'Annales 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 speedily led to the acquisition of the 

 requisite materials for completing the zoographical history of the 

 animal which it seems now agreed to call ' Gorilla.' The additional 

 materials which reached London, enabled the author to communi- 

 cate to the Zoological Society (' Proceedings of the Zool. Soc' for 

 Nov. 11th, 1851.)* a description of the entire skeleton of the Trog- 

 lodytes gorilla ; of which, however, owing to the number and cost 

 of the illustrations, two parts only have yet appeared in the 'Trans- 

 actions of the Society ' (vol. iv., pt. iii., p. 75, pis. 26-30 & pt. iv., 

 p. 89, pis. 31-36.) : but the main facts are recorded in the au- 

 thor's Catalogue of the ' Osteological Collection in the Museum of 

 the Royal College of Surgeons,' 4to, pp. 782-804. Entire skeletons 

 of the full-grown Troglodytes gorilla are now set up in the Museum 

 of the College, and in the British Museum ; and Dr. Gray has finally 

 acquired for the National Collection the stuffed specimen of a nearly 

 adult male Gorilla. 



All the foregoing specimens were obtained from a part of the west 

 coast of tropical Africa traversed by the rivers * Danger ' and ' Ga- 

 boon,' in latitudes 1° to 15° S. 



A corresponding series of illustrations, first crania, then the 

 skeleton, finally an entire specimen of the Troglodytes gorilla, 

 have successively reached the Museum of the Garden of Plants, 

 Paris, and have afforded materials for interesting and instructive 

 memoirs from the accomplished Professors in that noble establish- 

 ment for extending and diffusing the science of Natural History. 



De Blainville had caused a lithograph to be prepared of the 

 skeleton of the Gorilla, shortly before his demise. His successor, 

 Prof. Duvernoy, communicated a description of this skeleton to the 

 Academy of Sciences in 1853, which is published, with some inter- 

 esting particulars of the anatomy of the soft parts, in the ' Archives 

 du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle,' tome vii. (1855). The Memoirs 

 and Observations by his accomplished colleague the Professor of 

 Mammalogy and Ornithology, Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire, on the 

 Gorilla will be found in the ' Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des 

 Sciences,' January 19, 1852, and subsequent numbers ; in the 'Revue 

 de Zoologie,' No. II., 1853 ; the whole being summed up in the 

 part of his excellent ' Description des Mammiferes nouveaux/ &c, 

 4to, which appeared in vol. x. of the 'Archives du Museum, 1858.' 



The differences in the results of the observations by the American, 

 French, and English authors, relate chiefly to the interpretation of 

 the facts observed. Dr. Wyman agrees with Prof. Owen in referring 

 the Gorilla to the same genus as the Chimpanzee, but he differs 



* See also ' Literary Gazette,' Nov. 15, 1851. 



