SIMIAD.E. 371 



vertebrae four, as in the Chimpanzee ; occasional differences, however, 

 occur in the number of the vertebrae, both in Man and the Orang, for the 

 skeleton of a Pongo, or adult Orang, in the museum of the College of 

 Surgeons, has five lumbar vertebrae instead of four ; as is the case, also, 

 with the skeleton of an Australian man, in the same museum. In both 

 of the animals the amplitude of the chest is conspicuous.* 



The following are the admeasurements of the adult skeleton of the 

 Chimpanzee (female) : 



ft. in. 



Total length from vertex to heel 310 



Length of humerus 10f 



Ditto fore-arm 10| 



Ditto hand, to tip of middle finger 8 



Ditto femur 11 



Ditto tibia 8 



Ditto foot, from heel to the end of toes 8| 



Mr. Owen gives the following admeasurements of the skeleton of a 

 female Orang, in the College of Surgeons, which appears to have scarcely 

 arrived at its complete growth. 



ft. in. lines. 



Total length from vertex to heel 416 



Length of humerus . . . . . 114 



Ditto radius 117 



Ditto hand 10 5 



Ditto femur . 10 3 



Ditto tibia 090 



Ditto foot 10 



GENERAL HISTORY. Little is known of the habits and manners of the 

 Chimpanzee ; it is an animal of comparatively recent discovery, though, 

 probably, alluded to in a work of great antiquity naturalists are indebted 

 to Mr. Ogilby for directing their attention to a passage in thePeriplus Han- 

 nonis^ respecting the discovery, in an island near the African coast, of wild 

 men who were, in all probability, animals of this species. It appears that a 

 Carthaginian navigator, named Hanno (A. c. 500, or about that period), 



* "The agile and powerful locomotive actions of the Chimpanzee," observes Mr. Owen (Trans. 

 Zool. Soc. i. p. 353), " require a proportionally ample development of the respiratory system, and the 

 size and expansion of the thorax is accordingly a prominent character in its skeleton. The trans- 

 verse exceeds the antero-posterior diameter of this cavity, but not to the same extent as in Man. 

 The chest has the same amplitude of development in the Orang as in the Chimpanzee ; it equals in 

 size that of the human subject, and the transverse diameter is greater than the antero-posterior." 



t The original, of which only a Greek translation is extant, was written in Punic by Hanno, and is 

 a narrative of a voyage he made, by order of the Carthaginian senate, with a fleet, along the African 

 coast, for the establishment of colonies in that part of the world. Many celebrated men of the name of 

 Hanno have lived at different times ; but who the Hanno in question was, and what the exact date of 

 his voyage, are not well ascertained. Mr. Dodwell has endeavoured to prove the work spurious, and to 

 be the composition of a Greek who assumed that name ; but M. de Montesquieu and M. de Bougainville 

 have done much towards proving its authenticity. 



