344 MR. R. OWEN ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF 
Deductions in favour of the anthropomorphous character of the Orangs have also 
been derived from observation of the living habits of young Orangs ; but these cannot 
be regarded as affording a type of the nature of the adults, since it is well known that 
the docility and gentle manners of the young Ape rapidly give way to an unteachable 
obstinacy and untameable ferocity in the adult ; at least, of those species to which, as 
I shall afterwards show, the full-grown Orangs have the nearest resemblance in the 
form of the head. 
In the present communication I propose to describe the osteological peculiarities of 
the Chimpanzee (Simia Troglodytes, Auct.) and the Orang Utan (Simia Satyrus, Auct.) ; 
to trace in each the changes which the skeleton undergoes in its progress towards the 
mature state ; and while, with reference to the Asiatic Orang, proofs are thus eliminated 
of the identity of two supposed distinct species of the Quadrumanous order, to show the 
nature and extent of the osteological differences which divide the Orangs from the hu- 
man species. 
§ 1. Of the Osteology of the adult Chimpanzee. 
It has been no less a matter of surprise than of regret, that while the natural history 
of the Mammalia which recede furthest from Man, and which inhabit the remotest 
regions, has been investigated with the most persevering and successful exertions, the 
species which are in immediate juxtaposition with him in the natural series should still 
remain almost as little understood as at the dawn of zoological science. We now, in 
fact, possess more accurate and detailed information respecting the economy and 
organization of the paradowical Platypus of Australia than we do with regard to the 
Chimpanzee, the most interesting of all the brute creation, from its close affinity to the 
human type of structure, which has long been known to inhabit the forests of Africa, 
and where there is every reason to believe that it is far from being rare. 
The coasts of the Gulf of Guinea and the regions of Congo and Angola have been 
frequented for ages by Europeans engaged in commercial enterprize, yet the adult Chim- 
panzee has never been secured or transmitted alive to Europe, nor have its habits in the 
wild state hitherto been accurately described by a competent or trustworthy observer. 
While the energies of Europeans were misemployed in an unholy traffic, but little 
sympathy could be expected with those pursuits which elevate and dignify the nature 
of man ; and thus, while thousands of unoffending Negroes have been torn from the re- 
mote recesses of their native forests, and sacrificed at the shrine of Mammon, no museum 
in Europe has been enriched by a single prepared skin of the adult Chimpanzee ; nor has 
the bony frame-work, or even a cranium, been deposited in any public collection to 
afford the means of accurately defining the limits of the brute creation. 
In the Museum of Natural History at Paris! the osteology of the Simia Troglodytes 
1 Since writing the above I have been informed that the skull of an adult Chimpanzee has very recently been 
added to this collection. 

