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THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE, 



SEPTEMBER 1798. 



I. Obfervatlons on the Account of the fuppofed Orang 

 Outang of the Eajl Indies, puhlified in the Tranfaaions 

 of the Batavian Society in the IJland of Java. By De 

 GeoFFROY, Vrofeffor of Zoology at the Mufcum of Natural 

 Hi/lory. From the Journal de Phyfique, 1798. 



JDARON von Wurmb, the author of this account *, 

 fuppofing that the objed of his examination was that 

 wonderful being, fo much celebrated in Europe, by means 

 of which naturalifts imagine they can trace out, through 

 fhades almoft infenfible, the gradation from man to animals, 

 made no hefitation to give to his ape the name of the large 

 orang outang or pongo. But, inftead of having an opportu- 

 nity to obferve this lingular fpecies, which had occupied fo 

 long and in fo vague a manner the attention of naturalifts 

 and philofophers, and with which, it is faid, Maupertuis 

 would have preferred two hours convention to that of the 

 moft learned focieties in the world, Wurmb did not even 

 fee an ape of the fpecies of the orang outang. His obferva- 

 tions, however, are no lefs valuable, fince the object of them 

 is not only a new fpecies, but a fpecies of a peculiar form, 



* Fcr Wurmb's dtfeiption of this animal fee page 125. 



Vol. L Z W 



