513 Zoological Society. 



October 24. — William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The foUoMdng papers were read : — 



" Notes of the Dissection of a Female Orang-utan {Simia Satyrus, 

 Linn.)," by Prof. Owen. 



"The female Orang-utan which died October 11th, 1843, was 

 examined by me on the following day. Its weight was 41 lbs. ; its 

 age probably between five and six years. The living animal, when 

 first received at the Gardens, January 4th, 1839, weighed 33 lbs. 

 8 oz. The acquisition of the permanent series of teeth had been in 

 progress nearly a year. Of this series the first true molar tooth on 

 each side of both upper and lower jaws was first acquired ; then the 

 two middle lower incisors ; next the two large middle upper incisors 

 cut the gum. The two lateral ujjper incisors and the left lateral 

 lower incisor were soon after displaced, but their successors had not 

 made their appearance through the gum at the time of the death of 

 the animal. At this period, therefore, the following deciduous teeth 

 were retained in the jaw : the right lateral lower incisor, the four 

 canines, and the eight molars. 



" The permanent teeth (bicuspides) destined to succeed these 

 had their crowns about half- formed. Those of the large permanent 

 canines were in the state of hollow cones, supported, like the fore- 

 going, by large and highly vascular matrices, in the course of con- 

 version into the dental substance. The crowns and fangs of the 

 lateral permanent incisors were almost completed. There was no 

 trace of the matrix of the last true molar tooth in the lower jaw. 



" The membranes of the brain were unusually injected, and there 

 was much serum between the arachnoid and pia mater. An unusual 

 quantity of serum had likewise been effused into the cavities of the 

 thorax, pericardium and abdomen. 



" The principal and lethal morbid changes were found in the chest : 

 the right lung adhered by nearly the whole of its superficies to the 

 surrounding parietes. Its substance was disorganized throughout 

 by numerous tubercles, some of which had begun to soften in the 

 centre. The left lung had been the seat of more recent and active 

 inflammation ; its cellular tissue was gorged with bloody serum, and 

 its lower part hepatized. A small cyst, with firm parietes and clear 

 fluid contents, adhered to its surface. The heart had an oval patch, 

 two-thirds of an inch broad, of opake lymph upon its surface, as in 

 a former Orang : a cyst like that on the left lung adhered to its 

 surface. The mucous membrane of the trachea and bronchi was of 

 a rose-tint, and the tubes loaded with frothy opake mucus. 



" The right lobe of the liver was enlarged and congested ; there 

 was a slight adhesion of the epiploon to the spleen, which organ pre- 

 sented a slight anomaly sometimes observed in Man, viz. a small 

 separate supplemental spleen, about half an inch in diameter, attached 

 to the epiploon, just below the spleen proper. With the exception 

 of a slight increase of vascularity at one or two parts, the whole ali- 

 mentary tract was in a sound state. 



" The laryngeal sacs were expanded as far as the clavicles and 

 shoulder-joint, but did not extend below the clavicles. 



