These distinctions are not so striking in the female as in the male
gorilla. Although there is much which is bestial in the appearance
of an aged female, yet the crests, so strongly marked in the male,
the projecting orbits, and strong muscular pads are absent in the
female, as well as the prognathous form of the skull and the length
and thickness of the canine teeth. The aged female gorilla is not, in
her whole structure, so far removed from the condition of the same sex
in youth as is the aged male. The structure of the female has on the
whole more in common with the human form. It has been said, and indeed
on good authority, that the female type should take the foremost place
in the study of the animal structure, since it is the more universal.
But H. von Nathusius maintains that we must take both sexes into
consideration in the study of domestic animals, since both are needed
to determine the breed.[2] I accept this condition in the scientific
study and description of wild animals also, of every kind and species.
All that is said of the universal type of the female animal is and
must remain in my eyes a mere phrase. Only the accurate observation of
males and females, and of young individuals of both sexes, can throw
sufficient light on the history of the race. The male animal is the
larger, and predominant with respect to the complete development of
certain peculiarities of form in the specific organism, since these
are doubtfully present in the adult female, and are either altogether
absent in the immature young, or only rudimentary.
Let us now consider, in the first place, the prototype of the species,
the aged male gorilla in the full strength of his bodily development
(Fig. 1). This animal, when standing upright, is more than six feet
in height, or 2000 mm. The head is 300 mm. in length. The occiput
appears to be broader below than above, since the upper part slopes
like a gabled roof towards the high, longitudinal crest of the vertex.
The projecting supra-orbital arches start prominently from the upper
and central contour of the skull. In this species, as in other apes,
and indeed among mammals generally, and especially in the case of the
carnivora, ruminants, and multi-ungulates, eyebrows are present.
In the gorilla these consist of a rather scanty growth of coal-black
bristles, about 40 mm. in length. Beneath the projecting supra-orbital
arches are the eyes, opening with somewhat narrow slits, and with lids
which display many and deep longitudinal folds. The upper lid is set
with longer and thicker eyelashes than the lower. The dark eyes glow
between the lids with a ferocious expression.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Aged male gorilla.]
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