182 PON GO 



Satyrus Less., no earlier than 1840. Linnaeus is not the Author of any 

 paper in the Amcenitatis Academicae and a Satyrus Linn., as a genus 

 does not exist any more than does Lesson of 1799. Pongo Lacepede 

 therefore antedates all others. Of all the members of the Pongiidce, 

 the Ourang occupies the lowest position and is the farthest removed 

 from man. The skull, in the adult male, with its narrow, lengthened 

 braincase of limited capacity, frequently possessed of a high, long, 

 compressed crest, the protuberant jaws and great canines, the arms, 

 immoderately lengthened, with the fingers reaching to the ankles when 

 the animal is erect, fitting it essentially for an arboreal life, and 

 causing it to become nearly helpless for terrestrial progression, and 

 the short and comparatively feeble legs, all proclaim it the lowest of 

 the great Apes. The number of pairs of ribs is twelve, thus differing 

 from the Gorilla, and resembling the Chimpanzee and Man. The 

 Ugamentum teres which binds the head of the femur into its socket 

 is not present, thus giving a much more free movement to the limb 

 in climbing; but acts disadvantageously when the creature attempts the 

 erect posture. The cranial capacity of the Ourang's skull is less 

 than either of the other Apes, and compares as follows: Gorilla male, 

 34.5 cubic inches ; Chimpanzee male, 27.6 cubic inches ; Ourang male, 

 26 cubic inches ; and considering the relative size of the different 

 crania, the skull of the Chimpanzee has proportionately the largest 

 brain; and Owen states, that the "Hottentots and Pappuans of 

 Australia have the smallest cranial capacity amongst the Human races ; 

 but that the largest capacity yet observed in the adult male Gorilla is 

 less than one half the mean capacity of those .(Ethiopian races." 



The Ourang has no uvula, but has large expansions of the lateral 

 cavities of the larynx, and these extend from the throat as far as the 

 axillae, and in some old males these swellings or extensions of skin 

 beneath the chin, cause the animal to appear as if suffering from a 

 severe case of goitre. I shall have occasion to refer to the great dis- 

 similarity existing among the crania of the Ourang, and so many and 

 equally important differences exist in other portions of its structure, 

 that Owen has summed up his great review of the osteology of this Ape 

 in the following significant language: "When we review the varieties 

 already recorded, in the large Orang {Pithecus satyrus) of Borneo and 

 Sumatra, especially in regard to the presence or absence of the nail 

 and its phalanx in the halux, the occasional supernumerary molar 

 tooth, the length of arm, the intermuscular ridges and crests of the 

 skull ; the shape of the orbits ; the size and other conditions of the 

 nasal bones ; the fore-and-aft extent of the molar series, and the profile 



