82 



August 22nd, 1837. 

 Thomas Bell, Esq., in the Chair. 



Mr. Owen brought before the notice of the Society, through the 

 kindness of Mr. Edward Verreaux, the cranium of an Oraug 

 Outang (Simia IVurmbii, Fisch.), exhibiting an intermediate or trans- 

 itional statė of dentition, theie being in the upper jaw the first or 

 middle incisors, and first and second molares on each side belonging 

 to the permanent series, and the lateral incisors, the canines, and 

 the first and second molares (vvhich are replaced by the bicuspides) 

 belonging to the deciduous series ; and in the lower jaw, both the 

 middle and lateral incisors, and first and second molares on eacli side 

 belonging to the permanent series, and the second left lateral de- 

 ciduous incisor (not yet shed), the deciduous canines, and the first 

 and second deciduous molares. 



The permanent teeth, \vhich were in place, corresponded in size 

 ^dth those of the great Pongo of Wurmb, and prove that the Orang 

 differs from man in the order of succession of the permanent teeth, 

 having the second true molar, (or fourth if the bicuspides are reckoned 

 as molars), in place before the appearance of the permanent canines. 



Mr. 0\ven remarked, that the intermaxillary suture still remained 

 unobliterated in the immature cranium exhibited, and he conceived 

 that the ultimate obliteration might be caused by the increased vas- 

 cularity of the parts during the protrusion of the great laniary teeth. 

 In the Chimpanzee this obliteration takes place at a much earlier 

 period. 



Although the mnrks of immaturity, and consequently those ■vvhich 

 irnpress an anthropoid character upon the skull of the Orang, \vere 

 geuerally present in the head exhibited, yet, on a comparison of it 

 \vith the skull of a younger Orang in \vhich all the deciduous teeth 

 were retained, an approach to the condition of the mature cranium 

 might be observed in the greater protrusion of the intermaxillaries, 

 the lengthening of the maxillary bones, a thickening and greater 

 prominence of the extemal and superior boundarj'' of the orbit, an 

 enlargement and thickening of the malar bone and zygoma, in the 

 commencement of the development of the cranial ridges, and in the 

 uidening and deepening of the lower jaw. 



Mr. Owen then directed the attention of the Meeting to an ex- 

 ceedingly interesting preparation of a fcetal Kangaroo, with its ac- 

 companying uterine membranes, upon -n-hich he proceeded to ofFer 

 some obsers'ations. Ke remarked, that in a paper read before the 

 Royal Society in 1834, he described the foetus and membranes of a 

 Kangaroo {Macropus major), at about the middle period of uterine 

 gestation, %vhich in that animal lasts thirtj'-eight days. In this in- 

 stance the condition of the membranes, and the relation of the foetus 

 to the mother, were essentially such as are found to exist throughout 



