of an Orang Otang. 473 



which covers the palms and the inside of the fingers is stronoly 

 furrowed by those parallel and spiral lines, which in our own 

 hands, those of the apes generally, and in many of the Flanti- 

 grada, announce the acuteness of the sense of touch. The skin 

 is of a reddish-brown colour ; and the nails, which are about 

 an inch in length, are darker. The thumb, as in all these 

 creatures, is comparatively short, but extremely powerful ; and, 

 as before observed, placed nearly at right angles with the meta- 

 tarsal bones. 



These gigantic specimens having thus all the characters which 

 pertain to the hinder hands of the true Simia Sati/rus of Linnaeus, 

 or the Red Orang Otang of the Eastern Islands, of which very 

 young individuals have occasionally been brought to Europe, 

 it becomes a question, whether we are to refer them to that 

 species ; whether we should regard them as belonging to a spe- 

 cies very similar, yet distinct from that animal, as the Ponoo, 

 described by Worms, has been thought to be : or whether we 

 should consider these two animals, the Si/nia Sati/nis and the 

 Pongo, to be the same species of difterent ages, as they have been 

 supposed to be by Cuvier, Desmarest, and others, who regard 

 the Pongo as the adult animal. Now, certain it is that they very 

 closely resemble each other in many of their characters ; and I 

 should be strongly inclined to acquiesce in this latter supposi- 

 tion of their identity, could difficulties be overcome which have 

 arisen from an examination of several skeletons of Orano Otanos, 

 for opportunities of doing which, I am especially indebted to 

 Mr. Clift and Mr. Brookes. 



Among these difficulties, the most important arises from a 

 difterence in the number of the vertébrée ; for in the perfect 

 skeleton of the Pongo at the Royal College of Surgeons, I find 

 five lumbar vertebrœ instead of four, which latter is the number 

 in all the specimens of S. Satyrus that have fallen under my 



3 p 2 observation. 



