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THE
INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES.
VOL. LIII.
ANTHROPOID APES
BY
ROBERT HARTMANN
PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN
WITH SIXTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., 1, PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1885
(_The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved_)
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR ACQUAINTANCE WITH ANTHROPOID APES 1
II. THE EXTERNAL FORM OF ANTHROPOID APES 11
III. THE EXTERNAL AND ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE OF ANTHROPOID
APES, COMPARED WITH THE HUMAN STRUCTURE 55
IV. ON VARIETIES IN THE FORM OF ANTHROPOIDS 210
V. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, HABITS IN A STATE OF NATURE,
AND NATIVE NAMES OF ANTHROPOIDS 225
VI. LIFE IN CAPTIVITY 257
VII. POSITION OF ANTHROPOIDS IN THE ZOOLOGICAL SYSTEM 285
VIII. A SUMMARY, TOGETHER WITH SOME FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS
OF THE ANTHROPOMORPHISM OF THE GORILLA, CHIMPANZEE,
ORANG, AND GIBBON 290
APPENDIX 309
INDEX 321
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. PAGE
1. Aged male gorilla 14
2. Ear of a male adult gorilla 17
3. The young male gorilla, from the specimen in the Berlin
Aquarium of 1876–77 22
4. The same animal at a still earlier age 23
5. Ear of chimpanzee 31
6. Young chimpanzee 33
7. Head and shoulders of an aged male orang-utan 38
8. Ear of the orang-utan 39
9. Adult male orang-utan 40
10. Head of the white-handed gibbon 47
11. Ear of the white-handed gibbon 48
12. Left hand of _Hylobates albimanus_ 49
13. Left foot of the same animal 50
14. A wauwau in the left foreground (_Hylobates agilis_); in
the background to the right, two slender apes
(_Semnopithecus entellus_) 51
15. Skull of an aged male gorilla in profile 56
16. Front view of the skull of an aged male gorilla 57
17. Skeleton of an aged male gorilla 65
18. Skull of an aged male chimpanzee 69
19. Skull of a very young female chimpanzee 73
20. Skeleton of the forearm and hand of the Central African
bam-chimpanzee 74
21. Skeleton of foot of the Central African bam-chimpanzee 76
22. Skull of middle-aged female orang 77
23. Skeleton of young orang-utan 79
24. The Zulu king, Ketchwayo, in fighting array, with two of
his men 85
25. Aidanill, hairless Australian 88
26. The same in profile 88
27. Dewan, Aidanill’s sister 90
28. Human ear 93
29. Magot (_Innuus ecaudatus_) 94
30. Capucin ape (_Cebus capucinus_) 98
31. Hand of a very aged male gorilla 103
32. Hand of a Hammegh from Roseres, on the Blue Nile 104
33. Satan’s ape (_Pithecia Satanas_). Shows the formation and
mode of using the feet in apes of the New World 106
34. Human skull 108
35. The Neanderthal skull 115
36. Lower jaw of Moulin-Quignon 119
37. Naulette lower jaw 120
38. Lower jaw of chimpanzee 120
39. Sagittal section through the skull of a bam-chimpanzee 123
40. Human skeleton 132
41. Skeleton of an aged male gorilla 133
42. Skeleton of human hand, back view 136
43. Section through a platycnemic tibia from Cro-Magnon 138
44. Section through the tibia of a male gorilla 138
45. Section through the tibia of a male chimpanzee 138
46. Skeleton of the human foot, seen from above 140
47. Coaita (_Ateles paniscus_) 142
48. Muscles of the head and face of a European 151
49. Head-muscles of a Monjalese negro 152
50. Head-muscles of gorilla presented in Fig. 3 153
51. Palmar muscles of man 168
52. Palmar muscles of gorilla 169
53. Muscular system of the back of a gibbon’s hand 170
54. Muscular system of the human foot 177
55. Muscles on the upper side of chimpanzee’s foot 178
56. The brain of an orang, seen from the side 191
57. Brain of the chimpanzee, seen from above 192
58. Brain of gorilla, side view 193
59. Brain of orang, seen from above 194
60. Longitudinal section of a gorilla’s brain 196
61. Mafuca 216
62. The home of the gorilla 230
63. Climbing orang-utan, seen from behind 244
ANTHROPOID APES.
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.