SEMNOPITHECUS MAURUS. 



{Peculiar structure of this tooth among the Quadrumana, first presented itself to me 

 in the examination of the Simia Syndactyla (Eaff.); and in the description of that 

 animal, it is represented as having " one high, acute, conical, or pyramidal point, 

 projecting considerably beyond the second bicuspidate, with an oblique edge, 

 corresponding to the canine tooth in the upper jaw :" and I have added an accurate 

 view of this tooth from the materials forwarded from Sumatra by Sir Stamford 

 Raffles, and deposited in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, which 

 were referred to in the last Number of these Researches. At the same time, I have 

 given a detailed view of the general series of the teeth of the adult Siamang, as 

 belonging to the Gibbons, the genus most nearly aUied to Semnopithecus. I have 

 also added, from the Museum of Joshua Brooks, Esq., a view of the teeth of the 

 Siamang, as they appear in the young subject. The peculiar structure of the first 

 grinder in the lower jaw, as above described, shews itself in all Quadrumana, and 

 affords a distinctive character between this order and man. Its degree of develop- 

 ment in the Gibbon appears from the annexed Plate. In the various species of 

 Semnopithecus it is still more developed, and particularly in the Chingkou and 

 in the Kra. In the genus Cercopithecus it exists in the liighest degree. M. 

 Frdd. Cuvier, in the work referred to, " Des dentes des mammiferes, &c.," has also 

 observed and described this structure in the Pongo, (which, according to the 

 conjecture of the Baron G. Cuvier, is the adult Orang-utan,) as well as in the 

 Cercopitheci and the other Quadrumana of the ancient continent. By systematic 

 writers in general it is not ntientioned. It requires a more particular degree of 

 attention than it has received ; and the generic descriptions of the Quadrumana 

 hitherto given, are imperfect, as far as regards the character of the fii'st grinder in 

 the lower jaw. 



The individuals belonging to the genus Semnopithecus are distinguished, more 

 than any other Quadrumana, by a great length of body, and by a slenderness of 

 the extremities. In the Simia melalophos, (Raff.) the Simpai of the Malays, these 

 characters shew themselves in the highest degree. The Semnopithecus maurus, 

 which is now under consideration, has, on the whole, a stouter make, and more 

 robust extremities : it is one of the largest species of this genus ; one of the 

 specimens in the Museum at the India House, measures two feet and three inches 

 from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail. The general physiognomy of the 

 animals belonging to this genus is that of the Cercopitheci ; but they have a peculiar 

 character in the flatness of the face, and in the attenuated form of the body from 

 the breast to the loins. The form of the head of the Semnopithecus maurus is 

 already exhibited in the description of the skull : it is lengthened from the forehead 

 to the occiput, compressed at the sides, considerably rounded posteriorly, and 



