Description of an Otirang Outang. IQl 



5ts age, which was not more than 15 or 16 months: its 

 teeth, hmbs, and powers were ahnost perfect ; whence it 

 may be inferred that it had nearly acquired its full growth, 

 and that its life does not extend beyond 25 years. 



This ourang outang arrived at Paris in the beginning of 

 March 1808. M. Decacn, an officer of the French navy and 

 brother to the governor of the Isles of France and Bourbon, 

 brought it from the former place and presented it to the 

 Empress Josephine, whose taste for natural history is con- 

 spicuous. When it arrived in the Isle of France from 

 Borneo, where it was born, it was only three months old : 

 it remained three months in the Isle of France, was three 

 months on its voyage to Spain where it was landed, and 

 having been two months in its journey to Paris, it must 

 have been ten or eleven months old when it arrived in the 

 winter of 1808. The fatigues of a long sea voyage, but 

 above all, the cold which the animal experienced in crossing 

 the Pyrenees amid the snows, reduced it to the last extre- 

 mity ; and when it arrived at Paris several of its toes were 

 frozen, and it laboured under a hectic fever brought on by 

 obstructions in the spleen accompanied by a cough ; it re- 

 fused all sustenance and was almost motionless. In this 

 state it came into the possession of M. Godard, a friend 

 of M. Decaen, who succeeded in partially restoring it to 

 health. 



I visited it almost every day while it lived ; and Messrs. 

 Godard and Decaen enabled me to add to the observations 

 1 made. 



The means which succeeded in restoring this animal to 

 some degree of health, were good victuals, a proper tempera- 

 ture, and above all, cleanliness. At first the disease was 

 combated with tonics : bark being inarlmissible in the usual 

 way was administered in baths and frictions; but these re- 

 medies fatigued the animal more than they relieved it, and 

 they were given up. The constipation of the bowels was 

 nevertheless obstinate, and it was necessary to have frequent 

 recourse to bathing, and this treatment was pursued till the 

 animal's death. The desire for sucking which it evinced, 

 suggested the idea of suckling it again, but it refused the 

 breast of a woman who volunteered on this singular service. 

 It also refused to suckle the teats of a goat. At first it 

 seemed fond of milk, but it soon got tired of it, and of every 

 other aliment, which was given it in succession, with the 

 exception of oranges, which it seemed fond of to the last. 

 In about five months the animal died; and on opening its 



bodyi 



