Biographical Sketches and Authentic Anecdotes of Quadrupeds; Illustrated by Numerous Engravings on Steel

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Genus TROGLODYTES Geoffroy. textit{Generic character. Facial angle, 50 deg.; no cheek pouches, tail, nor callosity on the hinder parts; arras short; superciliary ridges distinct. The canine teeth are somewhat projecting, and are close to the incisory and grinding teeth, like those of the human species; the head is rounded; and muzzle slightly projecting. THE CHIMPANSE. Troglodytes Niger. Desmarest. PLATE I. FIG. I. The chimpanse, both in face, form, and internal organization, approaches very nearly to the human species. No adult specimen has ever yet reached Europe, the largest having only measured about three feet six inches, and, from the state of its dentition, being evidently immature. There is a strong probability that this is the wild man of the woods mentioned by travellers. He differs from the orang-outang, in wanting an intermaxillary bone, and the last joint of his great toe is perfect. He also possesses the round ligament of the thigh bone; from which it is evident he is more fitted than the orang, for assuming the upright position. His facial angle is nly about 50 deg. while that of the other species is 65 deg. The few young specimens of this animal which have been brought to Europe, evinced a considerable degree of melancholy, and were much more docile and submissive than those orangs whose habits naturalists have described. The chimpanse seems entirely confined to the inter-tropical regions of Central Africa, and perhaps some of the islands in the same latitude. He appears to have been known to the ancients, from a description we have of large apes, found in an island on the western coast of Africa, by Hanno, a Carthaginian admiral, three hundred and thirty-six years previous to the Christian era. He says There were many more females than males, ...