UNIVERSITY ) 



MEMOIR OF CAMPER. 



tious and inaccurate.' Camper's correct observa- 

 tion enabled him to detect another mistake in some 

 respects of more importance which had been com- 

 mitted by many naturalists, and which consisted 

 in making the eye of the orang very closely to 

 resemble that of man. On this point, our author 

 observes : " The coloured portion of the eye is very 

 large in the orang-outang, as in all monkeys, and in 

 most quadrupeds, so that the white of the eye can- 

 not be seen, and there is a total want of that sweet- 

 ness and vivacity which so peculiarly distinguishes 

 the regard of man. M. de Seve has done the Jocko 

 of the Cabinet du Roi at Paris the honour of as- 

 similating him to man in these particulars ; and 

 the orang delineated by M. Allamand is not free 

 from the same fault." Upon another point, he again 

 observes, in a similar strain : " It is the same with 

 the position of the lower limbs, and the whole gait 

 and bearing of the figure. And why, it may be 

 asked, have Tyson, Buffon, and other naturalists, re- 

 presented these animals so like to man ? We unhe- 

 sitatingly answer, to approximate them to the hu- 

 man species without in the mean while reflecting, 

 that, by their authority, they lead others into error. 

 If is not therefore only ignorant travellers, and un- 

 informed amateurs, who, by the wonders they re- 

 count from distant lands, propagate the erroneous 

 opinion, that there are animals which perfectly re- 

 semble man, if they be not truly of the human race ; 

 but it is the directors of the principal museums in 

 Europe who contribute quite as much to this error 



