22 Mr Grant's account of' an Orang-Outang j'rom Borneo. 



a two-year-old child of the human species possessing the strength, 

 agility, and sinew, and perfect ossification of the head, exhibited 

 by this orang-outang child ? Does it seem a priori probable that 

 this orang will in the course of a few years shoot up into a giant 

 of eight feet? Let it be recollected, too, that the giant orang 

 of Sumatra was concluded by Dr Abel, and upon fair grounds, 

 to have been a youth ; so that it is possible he might not have 

 attained his full stature at the time of his death. 



The general conclusion to which Dr Abel came was, that the 

 giant orang of Sumatra was identical with the animal described 

 by Wurmb under the name of Pongo. There are two or three 

 reasons for dissent on this point. In the first place, Wurmb's 

 animal was supposed to be full grown. %dly, Wurmb's animal 

 had dewlaps or hanging fleshy processes (Kwabbe) on the cheeks, 

 and the Sumatra orang had not. 3dly, According to Geoffri's 

 description of it, the Pongo of Wurmb has scarcely any appa- 

 rent forehead, and the bony box which contains the brain is 

 uncommonly small. The general shape of the head has been 

 likened to the half of a pyramid, thus N. Captain Cornfoot's 

 orang, on the other hand, had, comparatively speaking, a high 

 and prominent forehead, a large cranial box, and the shape of 

 the head was somewhat spherical or pear-like. And, jburthly, 

 considering his height, the Pongo of Wurmb was a more robust 

 animal than even Captain Comfort's. 



The animal of Wurmb, as well as I can understand from de- 

 scription, appears to have been inferior in cranial developement 

 even to Mr Swinton's young orang. The length between the 

 forehead and back of the head in the former is stated to have been 

 6| inches, in the latter it is 8 inches. I am aware it may be 

 urged that this difference may be attributed in a great degree to 

 the youth of the latter. 



For fear of extending this paper too much, I have not includ- 

 ed a copy of the measurements of Wurmb. The height of the 

 Pongo when it was examined by him was three feet ten inches ; 

 but this, it is stated, differed from the measurement taken at 

 Borneo, which was forty-nine inches. A different measure is 

 supposed to have been used, or the discrepancy might have been 

 caused by the animal's shrinking while lying in spirits. The 

 circumference of the thigh of this four feet high animal was one 

 foot five inches and two-eighths. While the breadth of the skin 



