“When requested, he would proffer his arm for the physicians to feel his pulse, turn over that the breathing in his chest might be listened to, and show his tongue for examination. For a long time he regarded the thermometer used to secure his temperature with suspicion. It could not be placed beneath his tongue for fear of the consequences, but, as he became weaker, and unable to repel the liberties, he was persuaded to hold the instrument under an arm.
“All that could be done for Crowley seemed of little avail, and for two weeks he remained in this hopeless state.. His temperature at times rose to one hundred and five degrees, and pulse beat nearly a hundred. In the absence of hot applications, only hot teas and liquors could be given him. A concoction of rum and molasses was prepared and he was prevailed on, at a critical point of his illness, to swallow a large dose of this, to which a quantity of brandy was added. Soon after swallowing it he fell into a heavy stupor which continued for several hours. About midnight he startled his attendant by suddenly leaping into his trapeze with all his old nimbleness. He bounded upon his spring-board and for an hour danced and shouted in his cage, and then staggered and sank down in a profound perspiration. He was covered with a blanket and slept soundly until morning.
“When he awoke, there was something like the old grin on his face as he looked up at his keeper.
“'Comin' around, old man?' asked the keeper tenderly.
“'Oogh, oogh!' muttered Crowley, faintly, and closed his eyes.
“Sure enough he was on the way to recovery. His strength and flesh returned, and with them his occasional displays of bad temper that required the use of the whip.”
“What is the difference between the chimpanzee and the gorilla?” Harry asked, when George had finished reading his description of Mr. Crowley and his curious ways.
“The name has sometimes been given to all the great apes, including the gorilla and the orang-outang,” said Mr. Graham, “but it properly belongs to the lowest of the man-shaped apes of equatorial Africa. The gorilla stands at the head of the list; then comes the kooloo-kamba, then the nachiego-mbouve, then the soko, and after these the chimpanzee. They are all so closely allied that any one but a close student may mistake one for the other, and this circumstance has led to confusion in the stories of explorers.
“In size and shape the gorilla approaches more nearly to man than any other of the monkey family, but he is still a long way from being able to claim one of us as his brother. The arms are so long that they almost touch the ground when the animal stands erect, which he does not do easily.