212 ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



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 I'Ourang-outang, in 

 the collected edition of Camper's works, tome i., pp. 64-66, 

 is a note by Camper himself, referring to Von Wurmb's 

 papers, and continuing thus : " Heretofore, this kind of 

 ape had never been known in Europe. Radermacher has 

 had the kindness to send me the skull of one of these animals, 

 which measured fifty-three inches, or four feet five inches, 

 in height. I have sent some sketches of it to M. Soemmering 

 at Mayence, which are better calculated, however, to give 

 an idea of the form than of the real size of the parts." 



These sketches have been reproduced by Fischer and 

 by Lucae, and bear date 1783, Soemmering having received 

 them in 1784. Had either of Von Wurmb's specimens 

 reached Holland, they would hardly have been unknown 

 at this time to Camper, who, however, goes on to say : 

 " It appears that since this, some more of these monsters 

 have been captured, for an entire skeleton, very badly set 

 up, which had been sent to the Museum of the Prince of 

 Orange, and which I saw only on the 27th of June, 1784, 

 was more than four feet high. I examined this skeleton 

 again on the 19th December, 1785, after it had been ex- 

 cellently put to rights by the ingenious Onymus." 



It appears evident, then, that this skeleton, which 

 is doubtless that which has always gone by the name 

 of Wurmb's Pongo, is not that of the animal described 

 by him, though unquestionably similar in all essential 

 points. 



Camper proceeds to note some of the most important 

 features of this skeleton ; promises to describe it in detail 

 by-and-bye ; and is evidently in doubt as to the relation 

 of this great ' Pongo ' to his " petit Orang." 



The promised further investigations were never carried 

 out ; and so it happened that the Pongo of Von Wurmb 

 took its place by the side of the Chimpanzee, Gibbon, 

 and Orang as a fourth and colossal species of man-like 

 Ape. And indeed nothing could look much less like the 

 Chimpanzees or the Orangs, then known, than the Pongo ; 

 for all the specimens of Chimpanzee and Orang which 

 had been observed were small of stature, singularly human 



