The gorilla : being a sketch of its history, anatomy, general appearance and habits / by Leonard J. Sanford.

  • Sanford, Leonard J. (Leonard Jacob), 1833-1896.
Date:
[1862?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The gorilla : being a sketch of its history, anatomy, general appearance and habits / by Leonard J. Sanford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    description is too meagre in details to admit of a decision ; the name, however, by which he calls it, ingena, suggests that animal, for this is the Mpongwe name for the gorilla. In that part of the work where he relates his visit to the Gaboon, he says : The favorite and most extraordinary subject of our conversation on natural history was the ingena, an animal like the orang-cetang, but much exceeding it in size, being five feet high, and four, across the shoulders. Its paw was said to be even more dispro- portioned than its breadth, and one blow of it to be fatal. It is seen commonly by them when they travel to Kaybe, lurking in the bush to destroy passengers, and feeding principally on wild honey, which abounds. Among other of their actions reported without variation by men, women and children of the Mpongwe and Sheekai [Shekiani], is that of building a house in rude imi- tation of the natives, and sleeping outside on the roof of it.* We might cite numerous accounts of apes more or less anthro- poid, which have been seen in Africa in the earlier centuries of our era, but they are all so vague as to render it impossible to decide in any instance, on a particular species;—we learn this much from them however, that there were in Africa, in the olden time, apes innumerable, and of many grades, from those of large size, power and intelligence, to diminutive monkeys that were more than liliputian. The tribes of men in the African wilds, though surrounded by these animals and always aware of their existence, have learned but little concerning their peculiarities and habits; acknowledging them as rightful cohabitors of the country, and hence possessing inalienable rights which should be respected, they have not ventured on much interference—not even for purposes of investigation ;—and for the more ferocious specimens, they have entertained so profound a respect and dread, as to be unwilling to incur any risks of danger for the sake of a better acquaintance. For reasons such as these, the Africans have been slow in acquiring information about their neighbors, the apes, and that most formidable one, the gorilla, they have known scarcely at all, except by tradition. Their tra- ditions accord to him wonderful powers, and achievements ad libitum; in story too he is perpetuated, and thus, many of the poor deluded inhabitants have come to regard the creature, either as a demi-god or demon, having no kindly purposes towards them—in fact they imagine him to be their direst and most dan- gerous enemy. When the gorilla stories were first divulged abroad, the subject of them was regarded as an improbability; but his ex- istence was placed beyond a doubt, before the world, in 1846. Towards the close of that year, the Eev. J. Leighton Wilson, a missionary in the Gaboon region of Western Africa, came in * Miasioo to Ashantee, p. 440.