599.8 3i6 



IV. 



An Introduction to the Study of Anthropoid 

 Apes.— III. The Orang-Outang.' 



ATATERIAL for the study of the orang has always been more 

 ^^^ plentiful than that for the study of the chimpanzee or gorilla. 

 Consequently the literature on this animal is the more extensive, and 

 founded upon a wider basis of observation. Some idea of the amount 

 of material may be obtained from the fact that within the last fifty 

 years about seven hundred skulls have been collected for purposes 

 of exhibition and study in museums. Skeletons and stuffed specimens 

 are not so plentiful as skulls, but yet common enough, especially in 

 museums, such as those of Holland and India. Living animals, too, 

 are not unfamiliar exhibits in Europe. In the zoological garden of 

 Rotterdam there have been twenty specimens in the last forty years, 

 and about an equal number in the gardens at London. In captivity 

 they do not, as a rule, live long, five years, perhaps, being the longest, 

 and two months being the average length of life {Schmidt, 274^). 

 The supply of animals has been fairly abundant, yet descriptions 

 of the soft parts of their anatomy are very few. Perhaps the most 

 complete are those added quite recently by Milne Edwards (258), with 

 the assistance of colleagues, and by Fick (235), although valuable 

 contributions to the general anatomy of the animal had previously 

 been made by Sandifort (271), Beddard (93), and Chapman (229). 

 The four animals dissected by Milne Edwards and Fick were full 

 grown and the first mature adults seen in confinement in Europe. 

 Much that is known of the anatomy of the orang is included 

 incidentally in descriptions of the anatomy of other animals — see 

 Vrolik (210), Giglioli (31), and Bischoff (293). 



The Nervous System. — As far as I am aware, the nerves of the 

 head and trunk have never been investigated, but, on the other hand, 

 the nerves of the extremities have been well described by Westling 

 (287), Hoefer (140), Kollmann (150), Hepburn (45), and slightly by 

 Fick (235, 127). The lumbar plexus has been figured by Utschneider 

 (209), Jhering (143), and Westling (287). No description has been 

 given of the visceral nerves. The microscopic structure and minute 

 anatomy of the centres and tracts of the cerebro-spinal axis remain 



1 Temminck gives Oyang-Outan as the correct spelling ; Sal. Miiller, who was 

 familiar with the Malay language, rendered it Orang-Oetan, but Orang-Outang is the 

 form in most common use. 



