24 THE MAN-LIKE APES I 



A very intelligent German officer, Baron Von 

 Wurmb, who at this time held a post in the 

 Dutch East India service, and was Secretary of 

 the Batavian Society, studied this animal, and his 

 careful description of it, entitled " Beschrijving 

 van der Groote Borneosche Orang-outang of de 

 Oost-Indische Pongo," is contained in the same 

 volume of the Batavian Society's Transactions. 

 After Von Wurmb had drawn up his description 

 he states, in a letter dated Batavia, Feb. 18, 178 1, 1 

 that the specimen was sent to Europe in brandy 

 to be placed in the collection of the Prince of 

 Orange ; " unfortunately/' he continues, " we 

 hear that the ship has been wrecked." Von 

 Wurmb died in the course of the year 1781, the 

 letter in which this passage occurs being the last 

 he wrote : but in his posthumous papers, published 

 in the fourth part of the Transactions of the 

 Batavian Society, there is a brief description, 

 with measurements, of a female Pongo four feet 

 high. 



Did either of these original specimens, on 

 which Von Wurmb's descriptions are based, 

 ever reach Europe ? It is commonly supposed 

 that they did ; but I doubt the fact. For, 

 appended to the memoir "De TOurang-outang," 

 in the collected edition of Camper's works, tome 

 L, pp. 64-66, is a note by Camper himself, 



1 "Briefe des Herrn v. Wurmb und des H. Baron von 

 Wollzogen. Gotha, 1794." 



