T. Gorilla, Savage (T. Savagei, Owen), the Gorilla, or Great Chimpanzee. In the Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for 1848 a description is given by Professor Owen of the skulls of adult and aged male and female Chimpanzees from the Gaboou River, much exceeding in size, and specifically distinct from the previously known T. niger. At that time Professor Owen proposed to call the species T. Savagei, in -honour of Dr. Savage, an American missionary, who had first obtained speCimens of this Chimpanzee, and described its character and habits. lu a letter to Professor Owen, dated " Protestant Mission House, Gaboon River, West Africa, April, 1847," Dr. Savage, after describing the existence of this Chimpanzee, says, "As yet I have been unable to obtain more than a part of a skeleton. It belongs to the Simiadce, and is closely allied to the orangs proper. It reaches nearly, if not quite, the height of five feet in the adult state, and is of a large size. I am considerably in doubt in regard to its identity with an animal said to have been known to Buffou as a large species of orang-outau under the name of Pongo." After the receipt of Dr. Savage's letter and specimens, Professor Owen received skulls from Mr, Stutchbury, of Bristol, which bad been collected by Captain Wagstaff, who shortly after died. "The only information which Mr. Stutchbury was able to obtain from him was, that the natives, when they succeed in killing one of these chimpanzees make a 'fetish' of the cranium. The specimens bore indications of tho sacred marks in broad red stripes, crossed by a white stripe, of some pigment which could be washed off. Their superstitious reverence of these hideous remains of their formidable and dreaded enemy adds to the difficulty of obtaining specimens." The following ars the points by which the T. Gorilla is distinguished from T. niger :— " 1. By its greater size. 2. By the size and form of the super ciliary ridges. 3. By the existence of the large occipital and inter parietal create iu the males, and by rudiments of the same in females. 4. By the great strength and arched form of the zygomatic arches. 5. By the form of the anterior and posterior nasal orifices.
6. By the structure of the infra-orbital canal. 7. By the existence of an emargination on the posterior part of the hard palate. 8. The incisive alveoli do not project beyond the line of the rest of the face, as in the chimpanzee and orang. 9. The distance between the nasal orifice and the edge of the incisive alveoli is less than in the chimpanzee_ 10. The ossa nag are more narrow and compressed superiorly." Professor Owen concludes his paper on the anatomy of this creature by the following remarks :—" The analogy which the establishment of the second and more formidable species of chimpanzee in Africa has brought to light between the representation of the genus Troglodytes in that continent and that of the genus Pithecus iu the great islands of the Indian Archipelago, is very close and interesting. Aa the 7'. Gorilla parallels the Pithecus Wurmbii [PIruzCus], so the T. niger parallels the P. /aerie; and an unexpected illustration has thus been gained of the soundness of the interpretation of the specific distinction of that smaller and more anthropoid orang. It is not without interest to observe that as the generic forme of the Quadrumana approach the Bimanous order, they are represented by fewer species. The Gibbons (Hylobatee) scarcely number more than half a dozen species ; Pithecus has but two species, or at most three; Troglodytes is represented by two species.
"The unity of the human species I regard as demonstrated by the constancy of those osteological and dental characters, to which my attention has been more particularly directed in the investigation of the corresponding characters in the higher Quadrumana, and the importance of the comparison will justify the minuteness with which they have been detailed.
Man is the sole species of his genus, the sole representative of his order ; he has no nearer physical relations with the brute kind than those which mark the primary (unguiculate) division of the placental sub-class of hiammalia." (` Tran. 'tool. Soc.' vol. iii.)