SIMIAD.. 397 



GENERAL HISTORY. As nothing is known of the Pithecus Morio, 

 and but little of the adults of the large Pongo, whether of Borneo or 

 Sumatra, all details must necessarily be general, rather than particular. 

 The organization of the Orang renders him far more unfitted than the 

 Chimpanzee for progression on the ground ; and, consequently, more 

 exclusively arboreal. Among the mighty forests of his native climate 

 only, he is free and unembarrassed ; the vast reach of his sinewy arms 

 enabling him to seize branches at an apparently hopeless distance; the 

 long grasp of the hands and feet, and their gigantic strength, combining to 

 qualify him pre-eminently for His destined situation. Added to this, the 

 shortness of his thick-set body ; and, especially, the still more remarkable 

 abbreviation of the inferior extremities, their inward tournure, and their 

 freedom, tend yet farther to his advantage. The great length and narrowness 

 of the hands and feet render them hook-like in character ; while the short 

 266 267 thumbs (see the annexed figures, 266 



267) have a backward situation, so as 

 to act as a fulcrum against the pres- 

 sure of the fingers while grasping 

 the branch to which the animal may 



Hand of Oranjf. Foot of Orang. 1 i " TM- 11 * A. ' ' 



be clinging. The ankle-joint is re- 

 markably free ; the foot exceeeds, in length, the tibia (or leg) ; and its 

 thumb (sometimes perfect, sometimes destitute of the ungueal phalanx), 

 divaricates from the edge of the sole at a right angle. The power of the 

 adductor muscles of the thumb is extraordinary ; but as the fingers, in 

 grasping a branch, are brought round, and only meet its apex, this, though 

 it certainly acts as a firm opponent, or fulcrum, against which they may 

 bear, cannot overlap them, and, in this manner, fortify their grasp, as 

 does the thumb in the human hand : see the following sketch (fig. 268), 

 displaying the muscles and tendons of the soles of the foot. In this 

 figure, the direction and volume of the adductor muscles of the thumb, 

 qualifying it for close and firm application to objects grasped, are very 

 conspicuous ; as are also the strength of the tendons, and the magnitude 



be occasional and, probably, defensive, in most cases. We perceive the utility of formidable canine 

 teeth to the Orangs, whose stature makes them conspicuous, and of easy detection, to a carnivorous 

 enemy ; such weapons, in connexion with the general muscular strength of the Pongos, enable them 

 to offer a successful defence against the Leopard, and may render them formidable opponents even to 

 the Tiger ; but in the smaller species, which we have been describing, to which concealment would 

 be easier, the canines are of relatively smaller size, and those of the lower jaw are so placed as to be 

 worn down by the lateral incisors of the upper jaw ; they were reduced in the specimen described, 

 to the level of the other teeth ; and the points of the upper canines were also much worn. The 

 size, forms, and proportions of the teeth, which relate more immediately to the food of the Orangs, 

 viz., the molars and incisors, shew, indisputably, that the Simia Morio derives its sustenance from the 

 same kind of food as the larger Orangs. The singular thickness, or antero-posterior diameter of the 

 incisors, which are worn down to a flattened surface, like molar teeth, shews that they are put to 

 rough work ; and it is probable that their common use is to tear and scrape away the tough fibrous 

 outer covering of the cocoa-nut; and, perhaps, to gnaw through the denser shell." Professor Owen, 

 in Proc. Zool. Soc., 1836. 



