260 



MONKEY. 



upper parts, becoming darker on the tail, which is 

 greyish brown, of equal thickness throughout, and 

 terminated by a few long hairs running out into a 

 kind of point, but not forming a tuft. The under 

 surface of the body is of a dingy yellowish-white ; 

 and the fore armsj hands, and feet, are of a dusky 

 black. The fingers of both extremities are very long, 

 and the thumbs comparatively short. The face, 

 which is black, with somewhat of a violet tinge, is 

 surmounted above the eyebrows by a line of long 

 stiff blackish hairs, which project forwards and slightly 

 upwards. On the sides of the cheeks, and beneath 

 the chin, it is margined by a beard of greyish white, 

 passing along the line of the jaws, and extending 

 upwards in front of the ears, which are large and pro- 

 minent, and of the same colour as the face The 

 hairs of the fore part of the breast appear to diverge 

 from a common centre. The height of our specimen, 

 which was not yet adult, when in a sitting posture, 

 exceeded two feet ; and his tail, which he rarely dis- 

 played at full length, but more usually kept curled 

 up in a single coil, measured nearly three feet." 



The dissection of this specimen of entellus monkey 

 by Mr. Owen, as well as that of another species to 

 be afterwards noticed, and also of some others by 

 foreign comparative anatomists, would lead to the 

 conclusion that monkeys of this division are very 

 distinctly marked as a separate genus, both in their 

 structure arid in their food. We have already hinted 

 at the peculiarity of their general appearance, their 

 lengthened limbs, their long and slender tails, their 

 comparatively grave aspect and manners, and the 

 slowness of their motions as compared with the serco- 

 pitheci ; and in their internal structures they differ a 

 good deal more. They are not ruminating animals ; 

 for no handed animal ruminates, except by a sort of 

 inexplicable formation or habit in the individual, which 

 species of monstrosity is not unknown even among 

 the human race. The author of this article knows two 

 instances of men who ruminated almost as regularly 

 as cattle. Both of them were labourers, men of large 

 body and remarkably strong, but clumsily made, and 

 very dull in an intellectual point of view. Both could 

 take a vast quantity of food at one time ; and one at 

 least could take as much of food that pleased him as 

 kept, him ruminating away for two days, or perhaps 

 more. The quantity which he took on these occasions 

 was as much as would have sufficed for one full meal 

 to at least half-a-dozen of ordinary labourers performing 

 each an equal quantity of work. He was much dis- 

 liked by the other labourers ; but whether solely in 

 consequence of this rumination, or from some moral 

 cause, we were then too young for ascertaining, but 

 the facts which we have stated are unquestionable. 

 If he had continuous work for a succession of days, 

 with a regular supply of food (for he always bargained 

 for food as well as wages), he did not eat very much 

 more than ordinary men until Saturday came ; and 

 then he was understood to lay in as much as served 

 him during the Sunday, the servants at the farm 

 where he worked having instructions to victual him 

 for that day as a matter of course. If, however, 

 David, for that was his Christian name, came to the 

 last day of a job, and had not another immediately in 

 prospect, " the lion of the north " could not have 

 been more zealous in providing for his army during a 

 campaign, nor the redoubted Dougald Dalgetty more 

 Industrious in filling his own magazines, than David 

 was in storing his internal receptacles as a resource 



during the days of uncertainty; and it was alleged, 

 though with what truth we know not, that if, duly im- 

 pressed with the chance of getting no more during 

 the time, he could victual himself for a week. 



Now, if such be the case with human beings, in 

 whom the stomach is simple (and we have heard of 

 many instances besides those alluded to), we may 

 naturally conclude that such of the quadrumana as 

 have compound stomachs may be liable to more fre- 

 quent instances of rumination. In all animals which 

 have cheek-pouches, those pouches may be regarded 

 as to a certain extent answering the purpose of a 

 simple receptacle of food, something analogous in 

 office, though not in situation, to the paunch of the 

 ruminantia ; and when we admit this, the sercopitheci 

 have really a sort of four stomachs ; and it is worthy 

 of remark that the monkeys having this structure are 

 confined to one particular region of the world, namely, 

 the south-east of Asia. The specimen of entellus 

 monkey, dissected by Mr. Owen, measured twenty 

 inches in length from the muzzle to the root of the 

 tail ; and the stomach measured thirty-one inches 

 along its convex side, or side of greatest curvature, 

 and twelve inches along its least. Its circumference 

 where widest was thirteen inches, and where narrow- 

 est a little less than four. It was pretty distinctly 

 divided into three parts, the first of these forming 

 a simple pouch, not very large, slightly divided into 

 two at its extremity, and smooth and simple in its 

 containing surface : the next and by far the larger 

 portion was sacculated.or formed into a series of purses 

 in the inner surface : and the third was long and nar- 

 row, sacculated at the commencement, and becoming 

 smooth towards its union with the intestinal canal. 

 This third division was by far the most vascular, and 

 most abundantly supplied with ramifications of the 

 gastric nerves, from which Mr. Owen concluded, with 

 every appearance of truth, that it is the true digestive 

 stomach, and that the other parts are only receptive 

 and preparatory. In addition to these peculiarities 

 of the stomach, the intestinal canal was found to be 

 much longer in proportion than in the sercopitheci, 

 as these again have them much longer than the ba- 

 boons and monkeys with produced muzzles. The 

 difference in this respect is very remarkable, as the 

 semnopitheci have the intestinal canal about one- 

 fourth longer than the sercopitheci, and one-half 

 longer than the genus Macaco. 



This remarkable difference in what may be con- 

 sidered the most important system of organs in these 

 animals, as connecting them most immediately with 

 the rest of nature, and regulating the kind of their 

 food, which again must regulate the places where it 

 is to be sought, and the means of acquiring it, is well 

 worthy the attention of every one who wishes to 

 study these animals with success, as showing that we 

 are not to take the mere possession of prehensile 

 paws, or hands on the extremities, as establishing any 

 thing like an identity of food among the animals. It 

 is also worthy of remark that these comparatively 

 slow-going monkeys, which have the digestive system 

 much more developed than the agile ones, stand some- 

 thing in the same relation to them as the larger ru- 

 minants do to the more energetic and more simple 

 stomached of the footed animals. This alone would 

 lead us to look upon the semnopitheci as making a 

 slight approximation towards the sloths, if not abso- 

 lutely in their mode of life, at least partially in their 

 feeding. Accordingly, upon comparing their digestive 



