472 Dr. Harwood oh a Pair of hinder Hands 



Captain Anderson, to obtain further information on the subject, 

 a great many other curiosities were shown to me, for which he 

 had been indebted to the munificence of the same chief. — It 

 now then becomes necessary to point out more especially what 

 I conceive to be the peculiar claims of these specimens to our 

 attention. 



Though very materially shrunk in bulk, from a styptic solu- 

 tion in which they have been preserved, they are, in the first 

 place, even at present, larger than any similar specimens of 

 which I have seen any well-authenticated description : for while 

 Dr. Abel in his highly interesting account of the gigantic Orang 

 Otang, killed at Ramboom in Sumatra, which he computes to 

 have measured 7 feet 6 inches in height, states it to have had 

 hinder hands which measured 14 inches in length, — these spe- 

 cimens extend no less than 15 inches and a quarter. Notwith- 

 standing considerable contraction in their circumference over 

 the knuckles, they still exceed the admeasurement of his more 

 recent specimens by a quarter of an inch, being 10 inches, 

 while the middle toe of ours, from the knuckle, exceeds his by 

 an inch and three-quarters, being the enormous length of 7 

 inches and three-quarters. The length from the metatarsal 

 bone of the fore-finger to the end of the thumb, which is placed 

 at nearly right angles to it, is 5 inches and a half; and from the 

 outer edge of the metatarsus to the end of the thumb, 9 inches. 

 The circumference of the thumb at its extremity is no less 

 than 3 inches and a (juarter, and that of the tarsus 11 inches. 



The second circumstance worthy of notice is the fact that 

 the thumbs are each destitute of a nail, but they have a hard- 

 ened protuberance in its place : and thirdly, their upper surface 

 is covered more or less thickly, as far as the last joint of the 

 fingers, with red ferruginous-coloured hair, which about the 

 ankle is several inches in length. The coarse and thick cuticle 



which 



