71 



its limits, doubtfully it is true, and with the acknowledgment that 

 his genus Nasalis has not been generally adopted, but at the same 

 time with a bias in its favour ; for observing that the manners of these 

 monkeys are those of the Semnopitheci, he adds, — " Cependant, il 

 ne nous paxait encore d6montr6 que le singe nasique soit une veri- 

 table semnopitheque, et il est fort possible que lorsque I'esp^ce sera 

 moins imparfaitement connue, on soit oblige de retablir le genre 

 Nasalis, dans lequel on I'isolait autrefois, mais que n'est pas 6t6 ad- 

 mis par la plupart des auteurs modemes." 



Setting aside the singular conformation of the nose, so remarkable 

 in the Simla Nasalis, its external characters are not different from 

 those of the Semnopitheci in general, and it is to be observed that 

 in a second species, lately added by Mr. Vigors and Dr. Horsfield, 

 under the title of Nasalis recurvus, the proportions of this part of 

 the face are much diminished, and its form also modified. Tliis 

 species (which though doubted by some as being distinct, is, we be- 

 lieve, truly so) takes an intermediate station between the Simia 

 Nasalis, and the ordinary Semnopitheci with flat noses, thereby 

 showing that the transition in this particular character is not abrupt; 

 even were it so, an isolated point of this nature does not form a 

 philosophical basis upon which to ground a generic distinction. 



So far I have alluded to external characters only ; it remains for 

 me to give some account of the anatomical characters of this singular 

 monkey, of which, as far as I can learn, modem naturalists do not 

 appear to be aware. 



It would seem that M. Otto*, who described the sacculated form 

 of the stomach in one of the monkeys of the genus Semnopithecus, 

 is not the first observer of this peculiarity, for I find that Wurmb, 

 in the Memoirs of the Society of Batavia, notices this point in the 

 anatomy of an individual of the Simia Nasalis. After giving some 

 interesting details respecting the habits and manners of the species, 

 he proceeds as foUows : — " The brain resembles that of man ; the 

 lungs are of a snow-white colour ; the heart is covered with fat, and 

 this is the only part in which fat is found. The stomach is extraor- 

 dinarily large, and of an irregular form ; and there is beneath the 

 skin a sac which extends from the lower jaw to the clavicles." Aude- 

 bert (with whose work ' Histoire des Singes,' Geoffroy St. Hilaire 

 was well acquainted,) refers to this account of "Wurmb ; yet Geoffroy 

 does not, as far as I can find, advert to these points, unless indeed 

 his statement of the presence of cheek-pouches be founded on the ob- 

 servation of a sac extending from the lower jaw to the clavicles ; 

 and if so, he has made a singular mistake, for the sac in question is 

 laryngeal, and the words as they stand cannot be supposed to mean 

 any thing else ; I know of no moniey whose cheek-pouches extend be- 

 neath the skin to the clavicles ; but the laryngeal sacs in the Orang 

 and Gibbons, and eJso in the Semnopitheci themselves are remarkable 

 for development. It is evident, however, from the silence of M. 

 Geoffroy St. Hilaire respecting the laryngeal sacculus in the Proboscis 



* See his paper in the " Nova Acta Academiae Coesarese," vol. xii. 



