444

THE LANCET.

LONDON: SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1859.

PROFESSOR OWEN AND THE GORILLA.

IT has not often happened that we have been more agreeablystruck with the close and rigorous reasoning of the scientificanatomist, in combination with an interesting exposition of apopular subject, than has occurred to us on the perusal of alecture by Professor OWEN, lately delivered at the Royal In-stitution." Before indicating some of the points in which com-parative anatomy and physiology were so admirably appealedto by the lecturer in question, we must ask the reader’s pa-tience for a few words. If he will take his map of Africa, anddirect his eye to that region of it so famous for fever, the slave

trade, and hippopotami, he will find indicated immediatelybeneath the equator the course of a river, called the Gaboon.From this river to the tenth or fifteen degree of south latitude,the coast is richly wooded, and by different kinds of trees,coming to maturity in their fruit at such various seasons asto be able to afford the denizens of’ the forests a successive and

unfailing supply of sustaining food. In parts, also, there is an

agreeable succession of hill and dale, the heights being crownedwith lofty trees, and the valleys covered with coarse grass, with

partial scrub and scattered shrub. This tract of the " palmnut," the " gingerbread tree," the " papau," the " banana,"the " amomum," &c., is called " gorilla land," and no doubtseems a happy country to those who are well used to it. But,like every other place, it has its drawbacks, not only tostrangers, whom it slays by fever, but to the natives, particu-larly to adventurous ones. In these forests, for instance, lives anenormous tailless ape, called Troglodytes Gorilla. His strengthis such as to make him a match for a lion, whose tusks hisown almost rival, though over the leopard invading the lowerbranches of the gorilla’s dwelling he will gain an easier con.quest. He will assault the sensitive proboscis of the elephantwith violent blows from a club, when he detects him pullingdown and wrenching off the branches of a favourite tree, thus

driving off the startled giant, shrilly trumpeting with rage andpain. Such is the enormous strength of his jaws, that he hasbeen known to bend and partly flatten a gun-barrel in the rageand agony of the struggle of death. Further, the enmity ofthe gorilla to the whole negro race, male and female, is uni-formly testified. No negro willingly approaches a tree in

which a gorilla keeps guard. Even with a gun the negro does

not make the attack, but reserves his fire in self-defence. Now,as the young men of the Gaboon tribe have to make armed ex-

cursions into the forests in quest of ivory, they not unfrequentlyintrude into the true " gorilla land," and we can well imaginethat the enemy they most dread should be this dire gorilla, anadult male of whom is at least five feet six inches high, and

nearly three feet across the shoulders. If they come uponhim unawares, or approach too near him with his family, hedoes not, like the lion, sulkily retreat, but comes rapidly tothe attack, swinging down to the lower branches, and clutchingat the nearest foe.

* On the Gorilla, by Professor Owen, F.R.S., Fullerian Professor of Physio-logy, Royal Institution of Great Britain. February, 1859.

"The hideous aspect of the animal, with his fierce eyesflashing with rage, is heightened by the skin over the prorai-nent roof of the orbits being drawn rapidly backward and for.ward, the hair erected, and causing a horrible and fendishscowl. If fired at, and not mortally hit, the gorilla closes atonce upon his assailant, and inflicts most dangerous. if not

deadly, wounds with his sharp and powerful tusks."

Negroes, when stealing through the gloomy shades of thetropical forest, become sometimes aware of the proximity ofthese frightfully formidable apes by the sudden disaopearanceof one of their companions, who is hoisted up into a tree, utter-ing perhaps a short, choking cry. In a few minutes he falls

to the ground, a strangled corpse. The gorilla, watching hisopportunity, has let down his huge hind hand, seized the pass-ing negro by the neck with vice-like grip, has drawn him upto the higher branches, and dropped him when his struggleshave ceased.

Of this strange and formidable creature our scientific know-

ledge was extremely limited until the intelligent attention ofDr. SAVAGE was directed to a skull which he first saw at the

Gaboon in 1847, and upon which he afterwards took ProfessorOWEN’S opinion. This was the cause of the authentic reintro-

duction of the animal into the règne animal, from which it hadbeen banished by CUVlER, as being nothing more than a pre-tended or fabulous great species of orang-outang. But its exist-

ence, though doubted in modern times, was probably knownto the voyagers of distant ages; for the Carthaginian voyagerHANNO, and the traveller BATTELL (1590), seem to have alludedto it. However that may be, it was only between IS4’7 and1855 that any great opportunities were afforded, in the way ofskulls and partial skeletons, and we believe one entire skeletonof a young gorilla (examined by Professor Owen in the Museumof Natural History at Caen), for our obtaining any exact know-

ledge of the true conformation and peculiarities of this greattailless ape. In 1555, the just-mentioned eminent anatomistlaid before the world all that was or could be then known

" On the Anthropoid Apes and their relations to Man."

Since 1855, skeletons, and the entire carcase of the gorilla pre-served in spirit, have successively reached the museums of

Paris, Vienna, and London, and have formed the subjects ofseveral memoirs. A short time since, a whole carcase, in

spirit, was received at the British Museum. This formed the

basis of Professor OWEN’S latest investigations. It has since

been admirably prepared and mounted by Mr. BAETLETT, thewell-known taxidermist.

Now, the interesting questions, both scientific and popular, in

regard to this monster ape, the gorilla, are as to its place in thescale of nature, and its true and precise affinities. In the wordsof Professor OWEN-

" Is it or not the nearest of kin to human kind? Does it

form, like the chimpanzee and orang, a distinct genus in theanthropoid, or knuckle-walking group of apes? Are these

apes or are the long-armed gibbons most nearly and essentiallyrelated to the human subject ?"

Dr. WYMAN, the accomplished anatomical professor atBoston, U.S., refers the gorilla to the same genus as the chim-panzee (Troglodytes), but regards the latter as more nearlyallied to the human kind. Professors Du VERNOY and IsIDORE

GEOFFIWY ST. HILAIRE believe it to constitute a new genus,but concur with the American savant in placing the gorillabelow the chimpanzee in the zoologic scale. On the other

hand, M. LARTET (a distinguished French paltontologist), Sir

445

QUARANTINE.

C. LYELL, and, according to some, Professor VROLIK, the

well-known Amsterdam anatomist, assert the "gibbons" tobe more nearly akin to man than are any of the larger taillessapes.

It is in the solution of these questions that the lucid, yetrigorous reasoning of Professor Owsx is seen so much to excel.At the first aspect, whether of the entire gorilla, or of theskeleton, he freely admits that the animal must strike theobserver as being a much more bestial and brutish creature thanthe chimpanzee. " All the features that relate to the wield-

"ing of the strong jaws and large canines are exaggerated;"the evidence of brain is less; its proper cavity is more

" marked by the outgrowth of the strong occipital, and other" cranial ridges." But then the impression so made that

the gorilla is less like man is shown by Professor 0WEN to beon a level with that which is derived from comparing a youngwith an adult chimpanzee, or some tailless monkey with a full-

grown male orang or chimpanzee. In such cases the more an-

thropoid appearances are appearances only, due, not to higherdevelopment of anthropoid characters, but to a less masking ofrather a lower development by certain animal anatomical ex-cesses. The analysis of the fallacy here indicated is admirablyconducted by Professor OWEN, who ends by showing that super-ficial appearances alone are likely to lead to error in deter.mining the true position and affinities of the great gorilla.The differential characters between the gorilla, the chim-

panzee, and the gibbon being discussed, the substantiation ofthe positive anatomic anthropoid signs of the former is thenminutely entered into. Here the first point worthy of noticeis the fact, that " the extent of the premaxillaries below the" nostril is not only relatively, but absolutely less in the gorillathan in the chimpanzee......In the relative degree, therefore,"in which these bones are smaller than in the chimpanzee, the" gorilla in this most important character comes nearer to man."Next as regards the nasal bones. In the gorilla " the mediancoalesced margins of the upper half of the nasal bones areproduced forwards......a modification of the nose bones, which

" gives the true anthropoid character to the human skull, andto which only the gorilla in the ape tribe makes any approxi-motion." Whilst no orang, chimpanzee, or gibbon shows

any rudiment of mastoid processes, they are present in thegorilla; and " the ridge which extends from the ectopterygoid" along the inner border of the foramen ovale terminates in the

"gorilla by an angle or process, answering to that called" ’styliform’ or ’spinous’ in man, but of which there is no

" trace in the chimpanzee, orang, or gibbon." Further, in theform of the orbit, and in the greater relative size of the molars

compared with the incisors, the gorilla makes an importantcloser step towards man than does the chimpanzee. Everylegitimate deduction, too, drawn from a comparison of cranialcharacters, makes the gorilla recede less than any other taillessape from the type of man. Finally, there is great reason tobelieve that of all quadrumanous animals the gorilla shows ab-solutely the largest brain; that its convolutions are deeper,more numerous, and winding; and that its cerebrum is larger,as compared with the cerebellum, than in other apes. From con-sideration of such facts as these, as of numerous other anatomicpeculiarities which we have not space to indicate, our great alaa-tomist seeks to maintain his former opinion, in which he standsalone from his French and American fellow-labourers in science

- viz., that the gorilla makes the nearest approach to man of any

animal. A curious thing is, that all the terms of the negroesin reference to the gorilla imply their opinion of his close kinship to themselves, though they have a low opinion of his in-telligence. Whether tue shall ever be treated to a sight of a

living animal is a doubtful matter. There is evidently muchmore difficulty in obtaining a young gorilla for exhibition thana young chimpanzee; and if no full-grown chimpanzee has everbeen captured, we can scarcely expect the larger and morepowerful adult gorilla to be ever taken alive. It is said that a

bold negro, the leader of an elephant-hunting expedition, beingoffered a hundred dollars if he would bring back a live gorilla,replied, "If you gave me the weight of yonder hill in goldcoins I could not do it."

WE are glad to find that the perplexed subject of Quarantineseems likely to be at length fairly and thoroughly examined.It is certainly high time that something of the sort should be

attempted, if it were for no other reason than for the credit ofthe profession, as upon no single point of medical science-andone, too, directly involving the most serious practical conse-quences-is there so much discordance, and even antago-nism, of opinion still prevailing. This is clearly not as itshould be on a scientific question, which is obviously quitecapable, nay easy, of solution, if truth, and truth only, be

sought for, and that in the right way. Hitherto it has been

looked at and discussed with far too much of party spirit andsectional prejudice; and, as always happens when such is thecase, the conclusions arrived at have been more or less intem-

perate and extreme.Amid the conflicting statements and the contrary advice

of the " doctors," the general public, as well as the govern-ments in most countries, have too often found themselves onlybewildered and confused, and have accordingly allowed theirfears, or fancied interests, to guide them as they best might..The value of medical opinion on the subject has, in con-

sequence, been little regarded. The National Association for

the Promotion of Social Science have, we think, acted verywisely in taking up the subject, in compliance with the recom-mendation of its Department of Public Health, the attention ofwhich had been drawn to it at the meeting of the Association heldin Liverpool in October last. It comes strictly within the scopeof the professed aims and objects of the Association; for thereare few questions of greater social interest and importance than

quarantine, affecting, as it does, to an enormous extent, not onlythe comfort and convenience of international intercourse, butthe welfare of trade and commerce. It is believed that the

amount paid and incurred, directly and indirectly, by Britishshipping alone in the course of a year, and, therefore, to be de-ducted from the profits of British trade and commerce, is

at the least between one and two millions sterling. But the

money view of the question is even a subordinate point. The

main thing is to determine whether quarantine, as generallypractised, fulfils the ends for which it has been instituted-viz., the prevention of pestilential diseases in a country bypreventing their importation from other countries. If it suc-

ceeds in conferring this great benefit, the mere cost, whetherin money or in convenience, involved in its execution, is notto be thought of. The great object should ever be, to preservehealth and life at any expense. To determine this point will,of course, be the main aim of the inquiries set on foot.

446

MEDICAL ANNOTATIONS.

The composition of the Committee that has been named forthis purpose, appears to us to be very judicious, as affording agood guarantee for impartiality, and freedom from anythinglike one-sided or foregone conclusions. It is much to the credit

of the Superintendent-General of Quarantine that he has nothesitated to take part in the proceedings. Great reforms have

been effected in the system pursued in this country while SirWILLIAM PYM has been at the head of the department, and iflike changes can, by the labours of the Committee, be effectedin foreign and colonial ports, an immense public advantagewill undoubtedly be gained.The co-operation of Sir JOHN LIDDELL and of Mr. ALEXANDER

will secure much valuable aid from the medical officers of the

navy and army, who have better opportunities than almost

any other members of the profession to know the working of

quarantine abroad. The medical officers of the ocean lines of

steamers, and more especially of the Mediterranean and the WestIndian and American lines, should also, we think, be applied to.It is, however, quite right not to confine inquiries to profes-sional men only, but to seek for aid from official laymen, andothers whose position gives them an insight into the actualsystem, as it at present exists in different countries, and makes

them practically acquainted with its details. Our consuls resi-

dent abroad, and the governors of our colonies in different

parts of the world, may certainly afford most valuable informa-tion, and we are glad to observe that Lord MALMESBURY andSir E. B. LYTTON have at once complied with the request of theCommittee to secure the assistance of those gentlemen.The " Queries" issued by the Association (vide p. 447) appear

to us to be well calculated to elicit the sort of information that

is, in the first instance, chiefly wanted-v iz., authentic andstrictly accurate data as to actual facts and occurrences, apartfrom, and irrespective of, all mere opinions, however plausibleor ingenious. It will be time enough to consider the merit orworth of these when the only sure means of testing theirvalue have been obtained.

M. VELPEAU, the eminent French surgeon, is suffering thepenalty of having perverted his hospital wards from their properuse to serve as an advertising medium for an adventurer. So far

from having succeeded. in convincing those who are formed bynature, or tortured by suffering, to be the dupes of charlatans,that M. VatzES is a speculator, (who so little knows how to curecancer, that he does not know a cancer when he sees it,) M.VELPEAU has invested that person with a quasi-scientific status,by entangling himself in a controversy. We learn from the

Courrier de l’Europe, that the illiterate scribe has publisheda reply to the report of M. VELPEAU, which will, no doubt, bereceived with a triumphant cackle by the intruder’s admirers. It

is in vain that the great surgeon shows that the entire treat-ment and control of the cancer-patients in the Charit6 were

confided to M. VRIES, and demonstrates that in no case did the

slightest amelioration result; the adventurer adroitly seizes thenever-failing resource of appealing to evidence that cannot becontroverted, because it lies beyond the pale of examination.It is surprising that a man of M. VELPEAU’S sagacity, andhaving the example of the Middlesex Hospital surgeonsbefore him, should not have foreseen the certain reply insimilar conjunctures : ’ Si pas guerir les cancers à l’h6pital,moi guerir les cancers à la ville" ! What member of the " dis-

cerning public" will fail to discover, that if the black APOLLOcould not cure a cancer in the hospital, it was because he wasthwarted by the doctors ? Thus, by a false liberality, has M.VELPEAU, like the Middlesex surgeons, defiled an institutionraised for the relief of suffering, and the promotion of science,without advancing the exposure of falsehood, or the discoveryof truth.

Medical Annotations."Ne quid nimis."

THE ELECTIONS.WHEN all the country is agog with politics, and the general

buzz of electioneering gossip drowns more serious topics in halfthe boroughs and hamlets of England, though the whole ofEurope is at the same moment rife with sounds that are ominousof unknown horrors of war, we too may be allowed to add a

drop to the ocean of words that now floods the electoral mind,and to address an appeal to the medical profession in behalf ofmedical interests. The last sessions of Parliament have givenrise to some singular exhibitions of prejudice on questions ofvital importance to the national health, which should not beforgotten. Honourable members have risen to denounce vacci-nation-to impede the progress of legislation destined to extir-pate the pestilence of small-pox. They have revived the folliesas to its impiety, its dangers, and the degeneration of race towhich it led. They have risen to protect the most shamelessforms of medical imposture, and the most specious systems ofquackery. Homoeopathy has found its friends amongst thelegislators. Hydropathy and Coffinism have been equallyfavoured. Surely it behoves those who feel that such folly inhigh places is reprehensible-that such perversity in legislatorsis injurious to the interests of the country, and that such exhi-bitions of prejudice and ignorance are not to be countenanced intheir representatives, to exert themselves to secure pledgesfor another course of conduct, or another class of representa-tives. Public hygiene has now assumed so high a place in thefield of politico-economical science, and an extended applica-tion of its laws has become so important a part of the duties offuture legislators, that it is more than ever desirable that theHouse of Commons should possess a certain number of members

capable of discussing the sanitary questions that so often arisewith a technical and general knowledge of their bearing on thewelfare of the community. The medical element of the Houseof Commons is singularly weak; there is a remarkable apathyin this respect amongst the more prominent and distinguishedmembers of our body. It is true that a seat in Parliament canadd nothing to the professional repute of a medical man; butit may contribute greatly, as there are some notable instancesto prove, to his utility to the profession of which he is a

member, and to the public, and may well confer on him a cha-racter which any man might be proud to bear. There are

many whose professional avocations are no longer so pressing,but that they might now fitly aspire to pubhc utility; thereare many who might gracefully and honourably employ theaffluent ease which professional labour has brought in the pro-secution of those public objects which the medical body haveso much at heart. We see no prospect of any increase in thenumber of medical members of the House of Commons as theresult of the elections now pending; but we entertain a sincerehope that the new Reform Parliament, which will soon succeedto them, may show a considerable accession to our parliamen-tary influence.

PROSTITUTION.

ANOTHER disclosure " has been made of the extent of the"social evil Pious hands have been clasped in astonishment