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XXXIX. On the Osteology of the Chimpanzee and Orang Utan. By Ricuarp Owen, 
Esq., F.R.S. & Z.8., Assistant Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Sur- 
geons in London. 
Communicated March 10, 1835. 
In tracing the successive stages by which the lower animals approximate the structure 
of Man, the interest increases as we advance, and becomes most exciting when we 
arrive at the highest term of the brute creation. At this point every deviation from 
the human structure indicates with precision its real peculiarities, and we then possess 
the true means of appreciating those modifications by which a material organism is 
especially adapted to become the seat and instrument of a rational and responsible 
soul. 
The Orangs, or great tailless Apes of Africa and Asia, have long been recognised as 
the Mammalia which make the closest approach to Man ; and their organization has 
therefore been studied with more or less care and detail by many distinguished physio- 
logists and comparative anatomists. Tyson!, Camper?, Blumenbach$, Cuvier‘, and 
Lawrence®, have been the chief contributors to this department of zoology, and by 
their labours most of the peculiarities of structure have been pointed out which relate 
to the semi-erect posture and climbing habits of the Quadrumanous order. The nu- 
merous analogies to the human structure which have at the same time been brought 
to light, have ever held a prominent place among the facts that have served as the 
basis of the theories of animal development: but as it has uniformly happened that the 
Orangs which have been described have been of immature age, many circumstances, 
as the facial angle, the forms and proportions of the teeth, and the shape and relative 
size of the cranium to the face, have had an undue importance assigned to them, and 
the transition from the Monkey to the Man has been assumed to be much more gradual 
than a more extended investigation will be found to sustain. 
 Orang-outang, sive Homo sylvestris; or the Anatomy of a Pygmie, &c. 4to, Lond. 1699. 
2 Quvres sur l’Histoire Naturelle, la Physiologie, et l’Anatomie Comparée, tom. iii. 8vo, Paris, 1803. Anat. 
de l’Orang Utang, tom. i. 
5 Beytriige zur Naturgeschichte. Géttingen, 1790—1811. Abbildungen Natur-historischer Gegenstinde. 
Short System of Comparative Anatomy, translated from the German by W. Lawrence. Svo, Lond. 1807. 
Manual of Natural History, translated by R. T. Gore. Svo, Lond. 1825. 
4 Régne Animal, nouy. ed. Svo, Paris, 1829. Lecons d’Anat. Comparée, passim. Dissertation on the Identity 
of the Simia Satyrus and Pongo, read before the Académie des Sciences Naturelles, but not published. (See 
F, Cuvier’s Dents des Mammiféres, 8vo, p. 10.) 
5 Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man. 8vo, Lond. 1819. 
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