CHAPTER I.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR ACQUAINTANCE WITH ANTHROPOID APES.[1]

Our first acquaintance with the great anthropoid apes dates from the times of remote antiquity. The West Coast of Africa, which is the abode of these animals, was known to the Carthaginians as early as B.C. 500. In B.C. 470 Hanno set out with sixty fifty-oared galleys, laden with colonists and merchandise, on a grand expedition across Morocco to Upper Guinea. The object in view was partly mercantile, partly undertaken with the purpose of establishing a colony. It seems that at that time pioneering expeditions had previously taught them how far the coast was adapted for colonization. The Carthaginians met with “_gorillai_” on the lower range of the mountains of the Isle of Sherboro, and in the mountainous district of Sierra Leone(1). These are described as hairy sylvan creatures who replied to the attacks of the seafarers by throwing stones at them. Three of these monsters, of the female sex, were captured, but they bit and scratched so furiously that it was necessary to kill them on the spot. Pliny relates that at the time of the Roman invasion, B.C. 146, two of the skins obtained on this occasion were still preserved at Carthage, in the temple of Astarte(2). It was subsequently shown that chimpanzees, not true gorillas, were described in these “gorillai.” The latter animals are not now found so far north.

[1] A list of the numerous authorities for the substance of this chapter is placed at the end of the volume.

An old representation of the chimpanzee, in mosaic, was found on the pavement of the temple of Fortuna at Præneste (now Palestrina). This mosaic is now in a museum at Rome, and has been described by several authors. It represents a scene in tropical Africa, probably on the Upper Nile. I find it difficult to recognize the chimpanzee on the mosaic amid the giraffes, hippopotami, crocodiles, and the other representatives of the animal world of tropical Africa(3). But it is well known that these large apes are found on some of the streams of the Upper Nile, as in Niam-Niam and Uganda. Pliny writes of these animals: “On the Indian mountains to the south, in the land of the Catharcludi, there are satyrs. These are the swiftest of creatures, sometimes going on all fours, sometimes upright like men, and they are so active that they can only be captured when old or sick”(4). These satyrs have been identified with the orang-utan, but the gibbon may also be intended, which is swifter and more agile, when in an upright position, than the orang-utan.

Subsequent to the remote period which we have cited, there is a long silence respecting these remarkable animals. Only at the time when Portugal became subject to the power of Spain, we hear something about them from Congo and Angola. The sailor Eduardo Lopez gave an account of the chimpanzee, which was published by Pigafetta in 1598 (5). There are later accounts of very large apes in the writings of Pedro da Cintra (6), Father Merolla of Sorrento (7), Froger (8), and William Smith (9).

Smith gives a representation of the chimpanzee under the erroneous name of the mandril (_Cynocephalus Maimon_). The illustration is bad, but it may be recognized by his description. In 1641 the Dutch anatomist N. van Tulpe (Tulpius) gave a better illustration of this anthropoid (10). This naturalist observed that the animal in question, _Homo sylvestris_ or orang-utan (_Satyrus indicus_), is called quojas morrou by the Africans. An anatomical description of the chimpanzee, which is still of great value, was given by Tyson in 1699 (11). The anatomical illustrations included in this work are remarkably well executed for that time.

Our biological acquaintance with the West African anthropoids is considerably increased by the account given in the sixteenth century by the adventurer Battel, of Leigh, in Essex. This man passed through the forests of Lower Guinea, as sergeant of the Portuguese troops under the command of the Governor of Angola, Don Manuel Silveira Pereira. In 1613 Battel’s account was published by his neighbour Purchas in his _Pilgrims_ (12). Battel speaks of two kinds of large apes, the engeco and the pongo, which inhabited the forest on the banks of the Banna and the Mayombe. The engeco corresponds to the ndjéko or nschégo (chimpanzee), the pongo to the n’pungu of Loango, or the gorilla. Battel’s description of the habits of these animals affords some characteristic touches which will concern us presently. We may date our earliest acquaintance with the largest of all the anthropoids from this adventurer’s career.

The Dutch physician Oliver Dapper published in 1668 a detailed description of Africa (13), in which there is much of value, and he mentions the large apes, called quojas morrau or morrou, which inhabit the kingdom of Congo (14). By these he apparently means the chimpanzee.

Some account, unfortunately rather vague, of the gorilla has been recently given by Bowdich in his very interesting work on the “Mission of the Anglo-African Company to Ashanti” (15). He says that there are several remarkable species of apes in the territory of the Gaboon, among which the ingenu (gorilla) is the strangest. The natives asserted that this animal is much larger than the orang-utan, generally five feet tall, and four feet broad from shoulder to shoulder.

In 1847 Dr. Savage, a Protestant missionary on the Gaboon, reported to the distinguished anatomist Owen that there was an ape in that country larger than the chimpanzee. In addition to this information, he sent some drawings of skulls by the wife of an English missionary, Prince, in which the supra-orbital arch is strongly developed. Savage gave to the animal the name of _Troglodytes Gorilla_, to distinguish it from _Troglodytes niger_, the chimpanzee. Owen also described two skulls of gorillas, sent to him from the Gaboon (16). The skull of a gorilla, sent to Boston by the missionary Wilson, was drawn and described by Professor Jeffreys Wyman, and with it the notes of the donor were also published (17). In 1851 the skeleton of a gorilla reached Philadelphia through the medical missionary H. A. Ford, who also published the latest accounts of the new anthropoid (18). In 1849 some remains of a gorilla reached Paris through Gautier Laboulaye, and this valuable contribution to natural history was received by de Blainville and Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. In 1851 and 1852 more perfect remains were presented to the Museum in Paris by Dr. Franquet and Admiral Penaud. In the finely illustrated works by de Blainville (19), Is. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (20), and Duvernoy (21), they are represented with great care. A splendid illustration of one of these specimens, excellently stuffed, consisting of an adult male, adorns the _Photographie zoologique_, by L. Rousseau and A. Devéria, which has, so far as I am aware, been published without any text (22). This illustration is so true to nature that I made use of it in one of my earlier publications (23).

Paul Belloni du Chaillu, born in North America of French parents, and reared in his father’s mercantile house on the Gaboon, spent the years 1855–65 in roaming through the lands bordering on the Gaboon, the Ogōwē, and the Fernāo Vaz; he professed to have taken part in gorilla-hunts, and he published several books about his travels (24). Critical light has been thrown upon these works, especially by A. E. Brehm and Winwood (25); the illustrations are defective, and the text is full of tales of adventure. Du Chaillu’s information respecting the African anthropoids was published in the _Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London_ (26). His remarkable collection of the remains of apes has been described by Jeffreys Wyman (27), to whom we are also indebted for a notice of the materials collected by Savage (17).

Owen has published instructive anatomical treatises on the gorilla and the chimpanzee, in addition to those already cited. This English professor had the opportunity of dissecting a young male gorilla, imperfectly preserved in spirits of wine (28). The travellers Burton (29), de Compiègne (30), Savongnan de Brazza (31), Lenz (32), the members of the German-African Loango Expedition (33), and Von Koppenfels (34) have also contributed some information respecting the gorilla in a wild state. Other works on the zoology and anatomy of this animal have been published by Duvernoy, already cited, Dahlbom (35), Haeckel (36), Flower (37), Issel (38), Giglioli (39), Chapman (40), Mivart (41), Macalister (41A), Von Aeby (42), Lucae (43), Ecker (44), Bolau (45), Pansch (46), Lenz (47), A. B. Meyer (48), R. Meyer (49), Bischoff (50), Ehlers (51), Virchow (52), Von Bär (53), by the author of this work (54), etc. Duvernoy, Chapman, Bischoff, Bolau, Ehlers, and I have, like Owen, been able to dissect perfect specimens of the gorilla. Two of the specimens which came into my hands were unquestionably in the best condition, since I obtained them immediately after their deaths in Berlin. A larger specimen of a female, 1000 mm. tall, was in worse preservation, yet still quite available for the purposes of study.

The list of anatomical treatises on the gorilla is not yet exhausted. Valuable information may be found in the anthropological works by C. Vogt (55), in the writings of Pruner-Bey (56), and Magitot (57), in Darwin’s works (58), in _Histoire Naturelle des Mammifères_, by Gervais (59), in Huxley’s _Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals_ (60), in Flower’s _Osteology of the Mammalia_ (61), in Giebel’s _Odontographie_ (62), and in many other handbooks and treatises on natural history, which want of room forbids me to mention.

In 1860, so far as I am aware, the first living gorilla reached England. It survived its arrival seven months, and a good illustration of this creature, accompanied by a brief description, has been recently published in the _Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London_ (63). In 1876, towards the end of June, Dr. Falckenstein brought the second living gorilla from Loango to Berlin. It had been kept in confinement in that country at the German station Chinchoxo since 1874, and it died on November 13, 1877, at the Berlin Aquarium. Dr. Hermes obtained a third specimen in September, 1881, which died soon after its arrival in Berlin. In 1883 a fourth still survived in the Berlin Aquarium.

The chimpanzee became the more general object of zoological and anatomical study at an earlier period, since the species occupied a wider area than the gorilla, and is more easily captured. I have already mentioned Hanno’s observations on the subject, and the animal described by von Tulpe. In 1740 Buffon had seen a young specimen of the chimpanzee, and another was in existence in London at the same time. In vol. 35, pl. 2, of his Natural History, Buffon gives an illustration of the chimpanzee, and pl. 3 represents an orang-utan, not very true to nature, but still recognizable (64). It is commonly supposed that the Dutch traveller Bosman, cited by Buffon, was acquainted both with the gorilla and the chimpanzee. He speaks of an ape about five feet high, living near Fort Wimba “d’une couleur fauve” (65). Although Buffon was acquainted with the names chimpanzee and chimpezée, as well as with Battel’s surmises about the pongo and the enjeco, yet he regarded the jockos, pongos, and orangs as animals all belonging to one species. The young African animals observed by him and von Tulpe (chimpanses) must have been young pongos (66). The name pongo was afterwards applied to the old misshapen orang-utan. The skin and skeleton of the chimpanzee observed by Buffon when still alive, was preserved in the Zoological Museum in Paris as late as 1842 (67). There is a beautiful illustration of a young female which lived in the menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris in 1838 in the catalogue of this noble institution (68). This illustration, in which the animal is represented on all fours, has since been frequently copied. Copies have also been made of the drawings of the same individual in a walking position, and swinging by one arm, which originally appeared in Vélins’ famous catalogue of the Museum of Paris. Is. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Dahlbom have given good illustrations of the head and body of an old male chimpanzee (69). Numerous, and for the most part correct, pictures of the chimpanzee have been given in several modern works and illustrated papers (70). Undoubtedly the best representations of the chimpanzee, corrected from photographs taken from life, are found in my osteological treatise on the gorilla which appeared in 1880, and also in the little book which preceded it (71). The form and mode of life of this species of ape are fairly well described by Bischoff (72), as well as in the books already mentioned, and especially in those by Temminck (73), Gervais, Reichenbach, and Brehm. Recently the opportunities of describing the bodies of chimpanzees have been frequent. Remarks on the anatomy of this animal may also be found in the works of Tyson (11), Vrolik (74), Champneys (75), Brühl (76), and Schroeder van der Kolk and Vrolik (77), as well as in the works we have already mentioned by Owen, Duvernoy, Bischoff, Issel, Giglioli, Lenz, etc. Du Chaillu (26), Duvernoy (78), Bischoff (50), Gratiolet and Alix (79), A. B. Meyer (80), and the author of this work (81) have treated of the external form and internal structure of new species of apes, and varieties of the chimpanzee.

Much has been written about the orang-utan since Vosmaer’s (82) day, among others by Rademacher (83), Wurmb (84), Griffith (85), Temminck (86), Schlegel and S. Müller (87), Is. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (88), Brooke (89), Abel (90), and Wallace (91). Camper (92), Owen (93), J. Müller (94), Schlegel and S. Müller (95), Heusinger (96), Dumortier (97), Brühl (98), Bischoff, Langer (99), etc., have studied the anatomy of this animal. Good illustrations of the orang-utan are found in Vélins’ catalogue, copied by Chenu (100) and Gervais (101), and in Wallace; also in the designs by Mützel (102) and Max (103), and in my work on the Gorilla, already cited.

It had been already shown by Tilesius (104) and Cuvier (105) that Wurmb’s young pongo is identical with the orang of Linnæus. We now know certainly that the name pongo (n’pungu in Loango) should only be applied to the gorilla.

The fourth and smallest species of anthropoid apes, the Indian long-armed apes or gibbons, have been recently described, with reference to their form and mode of life, by various travellers and naturalists, especially by Duvaucel (106), Bennet (107), Martin (108), Lewis (109), S. Müller (110), Diard (111); also by Buffon (112), Is. Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire (113), and Blyth (114), etc. Gulliver (115), Bischoff (116), and the author of this work have studied the anatomy of these creatures.