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Show 1899.] SOME ANTHROPOID APES. 313 only 1010 mm. in height (less than 3 ft. 4 in.). On renewed careful examination of the skeleton and of the skin, including observations on hair-colour, ear-dimensions, characters of the extremities and face, I could find no reason for regarding it as other than an old female Chimpanzee, but one considerably smaller than our Cambridge specimen " A " (also an aged female). 2. The foregoing instance is one in which a Chimpanzee is incorrectly described as a Gorilla. The con\*erse, whereby a Gorilla is described as a Chimpanzee, may be noticed in the paper by Brofessors Kiikenthal and Ziehen of Jena (in the ' Jenaische Zeitschrift filr Naturwissenschaft,' Band xxix. 1894), entitled: " Untersuchungen fiber die Grosshirnf urchen der Brimaten." On mentioning Gorilla engena, the authors state that they themselves had no opportunity of making observations on cerebral hemispheres of this species. They draw up, however, from the works of others, a list of twenty characteristic features of the fissures of the cerebral hemispheres in this species. They proceed to Troglodytes niger, of Avhich they describe six hemispheres, with which they combine descriptions of tAvo hemispheres of Troglodytes savagii! The latter specimens are in the Museum of the Boyal College of Surgeons, and are the cerebral hemispheres of a Gorilla that died in this Society's Gardens in 1887. More interesting than the omission of the authors to recognize the identity of Gorilla engena Avith Troglodytes savagii is the fact that out of the ten particulars in which the hemispheres of T. savagii are stated to differ from those of T. niger, in three only does such divergence from T. niger imply agreement Avith features previously described by the authors as characteristic of Gorilla engena, while in three cases there is divergence from these characteristic features of Gorilla engena, and in the remaining four instances no comparisons can be made. But further, from the examination of these hemispheres of T. niger and savagii, the authors proceed to draAV up a list of characters specially typical of the hemisphere of the Cbimpanzee, and seventeen of these affect features that appeared in the list for Gorilla engena. Of these seventeen characters, thirteen actually present similarities in conformation betAA'een the hemispheres of Gorilla engena and of the Chimpanzee (i. e. T. niger and T. savagii of Brofs. Kiikenthal and Ziehen), while only four indicate differences of conformation. If we may accept the data, no better proof could be adduced of the practical identity of Gorilla and Chimpanzee in respect of cerebral convolutions. 3. The study of cerebral hemispheres of Gorilla and Chimpanzee respectively (in m y possession) shoAvs in strong relief the diversity of conformation that may be met with in the brains of the former. Consequently the value to be attached to the arrangement of the cerebral convolutions as a criterion of species is insignificant, and herein the conclusion arrived at in the preceding paragraph is corroborated. I should prefer, hoAveA*er, to postpone the further consideration of this part of the subject until I have been able to consult the communication so lately made to the Zoological Society on the brain of the Gorilla. |
