S0§ *■ PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO l/TQ. 



his pigmy. Dr. C. endeavoured to get one from the East Indies. He got a 

 female one in 1770, and in 1771 another. These and the succeeding years 

 were very favourable to naturalists: f(fr Professor Allamand got a male orang 

 for the Museum of the University of Leyden; Mr. Vander Meulen received 

 one, and Mr. Vosmaer got 2 for the celebrated collection of the Prince of Orange, 

 all females. In the year 1777, Dr. Van Hoey (a physician of celebrity at the 

 Hague, who has a rich collection of natural curiosities) got a male orang, but 

 very young. So that Dr. C. had an opportunity of seeing 7 orangs, besides the 

 living orang, which was sent to the Prince of Orange. All these resembled 

 perfectly in shape and colour that of Mr. Edwards, which is still preserved in 

 the British Museum. 



Seven of those, which Dr. C. had seen, had no nails on the great toes of the 

 feet: it surprized him therefore to see them so distinctly represented by Professor 

 Allamand. Dr. C. informed him of it; and he corrected his description 

 accordingly, p. 75, ib. in fine, which was easily done, as the sheets were not 

 worked off at the press. He wrote likewise to Dr. Kooystra, physician to the 

 London Infirmary, to inquire about the orang in the British Museum. The 

 late Dr. Maty examined the orang with him; and both declared, that not a 

 single mark of a nail was to be found on the large toes of that specimen, 

 though Mr. Edwards had represented them on his 213th table so very large. 

 These two instances show, how little we can depend on figures, if not drawn 

 with great exactness. The want of these nails, and of the 'id phalanx of the 

 large toes, is a very remarkable character in this animal. Nature however seems 

 to be inconstant sometimes; for on the great toe of the right foot of the orang 

 in Dr. Van Hoey's collection, there was a small nail and 3 phalanges. The 

 singular red, long hair, and the shortness of the neck, form another very 

 peculiar property; for in the living, as well as in all the rest, the shoulders rise up 

 to the ears; the lower and upper jaws much projected forwards. The country 

 they all came from was Borneo, from which island they are first sent over to 

 Java, and so to Holland by the Cape of Good Hope. 



The orang outangs described by Tulpius and Tyson came from Angola, and 

 had both black hair, and large nails on the great toes. The figures by these 

 great men are very deficient in many respects; but, on the whole, the animals 

 are represented and described as very strong and muscular; whereas all the 

 rangs from Borneo were the contrary, and had long and very lean arms and 

 legs. To conclude, it seems very probable, that Africa furnishes a peculiar sort 

 of apes which are not the pithecos of the ancients, though these are not un- 

 common in Angola. The organs of voice of the Angolese orang, dissected by 

 Tyson, are very different from those of the pithecos which Dr. C. dissected in 

 1777. This one had the os hyoides like all the papiones or sphinges, &c.; the 



