114 
POPULAR SCIENCE KEYIEW. 
Jeffries Wyman (in the United States) to describe* important 
parts of its anatomy. 
Other specimens were soon afterwards procured, and were 
described in our own country by Professor Owenf more than 
twenty years ago. 
The misconception as to the discovery of the Gorilla, how- 
ever, is but a trifling matter ; that as to its nature and rank 
is of far greater importance. 
The lively interest which was been awakened by recent 
assertions respecting what is called “the descent of man,” 
manifests itself far and wide in the daily press — in popular if*' 
caricatures — on the theatrical stage, and in the Houses of our ; 
own Legislature as in the French Assembly. r 
It is interesting also to note that whereas a few years ago the 
notion of the brute origin of man was vehemently and all 
but universally scouted, the public are now carried by a wave 
of sentiment in a diametrically opposite direction, and there is r 
even a widely diffused sympathy with notions which but lately 
were found so unpalatable. Then there was not tolerance to 
listen to, far less to, fairly appreciate, the arguments advanced 
by certain men of science in support of their views. Now 
there is as little disposition as ever to weigh evidence, but the 
tendency is to accept without examination and without criti- 
cism the statements of every advocate of the essential unity of 
man and beasts. 
Concomitantly with this change of sentiment there has also 
arisen a popular belief in the semi-humanity of the Gorilla, or 
at least an impression that the Gorilla possesses a very special ^ 
and exceptional affinity to man. This animal is now popularly 
supposed to be closely connected with that “ missing link ” 
which, as is asserted, once bridged over the gulf separating man 
from the apes. The Gorilla, if not the direct ancestor of 
man, is yet generally thought to be related with exceptional ; 
closeness to such direct ancestor, and so to constitute the one i 
existing and visible bond between ourselves and the lower 
animals. Highest of apes — close ally of the Xegro — the 
Gorilla is by some supposed to surpass and excel the humbler 
and commoner apes as man surpasses and excels the Gorilla. 
It is proposed here, putting aside all prejudice, to investigate ■ 
by the unimpassioned process of enumerating and weighing 
facts of structure, what is the teaching of nature as to the 
affinities of various apes to man. It is not, therefore, proposed 
to touch directly upon the question of the ape origin of man 
* See “Boston Journal of Natural History,” vol. iv. 1843-4, and vol. v. 
847. . ' 
t See “ Pro. Zool. Soc.” 1851, and “ Trans. Zool. Soc.” vol. iv. and v. 
