Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-12-26
THURSDAY EVENING. DECEMBER 26 1867 NO 9S

despotic form OF government is entirely
unknown. Polygamy, slavery, and witch
craft exist wherever | have penetrated.
In this great forest and in the mountain
recesses man is what we may call prlm-
tive. No trading caravan from the
East or from the West, from the North
or from the South, has come TO him; no
white man has been in his midst; no
fire-water" has reached him ; he is shut
out from the world around him, and has
been left to the devices Of bis own untu-
tored heart. The few individuals who
leave the interior country for the sea-
shore never come back to tell their old
tribe of the white man aud the outer
world the path is closed there is a gulf
between the seashore aud the interior,
but not between the interior and the sea.
The religion OF the prophet Mahomet has
been unable to make headway against
the impenetrable forest and its savage
iuhabitants-all is primitive nature,
where civilization is undreamed Of and
the white man and commerce are as yet
strangers.
The lecturer concluded his very inte-
resting narrative by referring to the 60
rilla
The gorilla was the widest beast, the
lecturer said, which he had ever known.
Ii lives in the widest and most unfre-
duented iungles, and never visits the hab-
itations Of men, Notwithstanding the
tales to the contrary. The lecturer had
tried hard to tame the young ones, but
never had been able to do so in the slight.
est degree, nor could he induce them to
eat anything except the wild plants OF
their native woods. They starved them
selves to death invariably when such food
could be not reached. He tried to trans
port one to England alive, and procured
large quantity of berries and roots, but
the latter it could not eat, and the former
lasted only a month, in consequence of
decay, and in three days after it died
from actual starvation, refusing to touch
particle Of anything on board the ship.
The average hight of the male is from
FIVE feet six to five feet eight inches, and
of the female, four feet FIVE to four feet
eight inches, the tallest males he ever
saw not being over six feet two inches.
The arms are very long, reaching to the
knees the legs short and the trunk very
long in proportion to the human form.
The body contains the same number of
bones as that of man, although those of
the spinal column are differently ar
ranged, there being one less cervicel
vertebrs, and one more pair of ribs,
which is accounted for by the fact that
man he's had one pair taken from him.
The eyes are gray, and are near the top
of the forehead, deep set in prominent
sockets, and wide apart; the nose has no
bone, and is not at all prominent, the
jaws and front teeth being excessively so.
1t has very long canine teeth, but these,
in the adult, are worn down, by gnawing
the bark of young trees to get at the sap,
of which they are fond. The hands are
immense and the palms as hard as iron,
and the knuckles very large. The foot
is formed like that of the monkey the
great toe being separate from the others.
The jaws possess great strength and are
able to crack the hardest nuts, which
would require smart blow of hammer.
The brain of the adult male ranges from
twenty.eight to thirty four cubic inches,
or but very little larger than that of the
young one, which averages twenty-five
inches, though the head of the former
increases to four times the size of the
latter. The average size of the brain of
the negro is 6tty-eight cubic inches,
which is the next lowest, while the white
man ranges as high as one sundred and
ten to one hundred and twenty. This the
lecturer argued as proof that there is no
human or mental development in the
gorilla. In form he is something like
man and that is all.