APES IN CAPTIVITY 



265 



acid gas which is the chief food of plants, nor it 

 cannot be any form of nitrogen ; and it is well known 

 that the plant cannot long survive in a pure atmo- 

 sphere. Whatever the ingredient extracted may be, 

 it is certain that it is one that is deadly to human 

 life, and one which other plants refuse. Moisture 

 and heat alone cannot account for it. 



We have another striking instance in the euca- 

 lyptus, which lives upon the poison of the air around 

 it. There are many other cases in vegetable life, 

 and while the animal is a higher organism than the 

 plant, there are certain laws of life that obtain in 

 both kingdoms which are the same in principle. 



Between the case of the gorilla and that of the 

 plant there is some analogy. It may not be the 

 same element that sustains them both, but it is 

 possible that the very microbes which germinate 

 disease and prove fatal to man sustain the life of the 

 ape in the prime of health. The poison which 

 destroys life in man preserves it in the ape. 



The chimpanzee is distributed over a much greater 

 range, and is capable of undergoing a much greater 

 degree of change in food and temperature. The 

 history of these apes in captivity shows that the 

 chimpanzee lives much longer in that state and 

 requires much less care. From my own observation 

 I assert that all of these apes can undergo a greater 

 range of temperature than they can of humidity. 

 This appears to be one of the essential things to the 

 life of a gorilla, and one fatal mistake made in 

 treating him is furnishing him with a dry, warm 



p 



