192 Description of an Oitrang Ozdang. 



bodvj most oi the viscera were found to be disorganized 

 aud Hill >)r obstructions. 



Such was the animal who formed the subiect of my ob* 

 servatians; and, i.u different from those which have hitherto 

 been described, it had never been su'njected to any particular 

 education, and wa:= only influenced by the circumstances in 

 which it happened to be placed: it owed nothing to habit, 

 iiotliing mechanical entered into its actions, all of them 

 were the simple effects of volition, or at least of nature. 

 Now that I have described the organs of this animal and 

 their uses, 1 ought to make known the phaenomena which 

 its intelligence presented : but before entering upon these 

 details I ought to say a word on the influence which the 

 intellect is liable to from the modifications of our senses. 



It appears to me, that some authors have made intelli- 

 gence depend much more than was just on the greater 

 or less perfection of the hands or fingers. Now although 

 the hand of an ape and of an ourang outang differs very 

 little from ours, and these animals could undoubiedly make 

 tke same use of tliem as we do, if they were actuated by 

 the san;e ideas, yet an ourang ouiang would no more be a 

 man v\ith more perfect hands or fingers, than a man would 

 be an ape because he was born vMthout arms. The in- 

 fluence of the senses on the mind has been particularly ex- 

 aggerated : some authors have thought that upon the de- 

 gree of pcrtcction of these organs the degtee of the perfec- 

 tion of the understanding in a great measure depended. 

 Nevertheless it must be admitted that several animals have 

 senses completely similar to ours; and the descri|ition 

 which v\e have given of the ourang oiUang shows that this 

 animal, which certainly is not a man, has received senses 

 equally numerous, and at least equally delicate with ours. 

 Besides, if we consider tht- real influence exercised on the 

 operations of the understanding by more or less delicate 

 organs, we see that it is limited to the multiplying of ideas 

 in a greater or less ratio, without making any change in the 

 manner or setting these elements at work. The most hum- 

 ble artisan, who has exercised his sight least, and who can- 

 not distinguish the most striking shades of colour, will not 

 be less of the same species with the painter who has studied 

 all the accidents of light, and who can recognise them in 

 the slightest undulations of a drapery. Lastly, the under- 

 standiuir may have ideas-without the aid of the senses : two 

 thirds of the brute creation are moved by ideas which they 

 do not owe to ihcir sensations, but which flow immediately 



from 



