Foreign Literature and Science. 161 



INTELLIGENCE AND MISCELLANIES. 



I. Foreign.* 



1 . A Summary of an " Account of an Orang Outang, of 

 remarkable height, from the island of Sumatra. By Clarke 

 Abel, M. D." Communicated in a letter to Dr. Brewster. 



In his letter to Dr. Brewster, the author states ; " The no- 

 tice is taken from a paper which I had lately the honor of 

 reading to the Asiatic Society." 



I have httle to remark in addition to what the notice con- 

 tains, except that the youth of the animal, was equally pro- 

 ved by the state of its teeth, and by the apophysis of the 

 bones of its hands and feet being incompletely ossified. The 

 general conclusions to which I have come, from a consider- 

 tion of all the circumstances I have collected respecting this 

 animal, is, that it is identical with the Orang Outang, de= 

 scribed by Wurmb in the Batavian Transactions ; that Cu- 

 vier is right in considering Wurmb's animal as the adult of 

 the young eastern Orangs seen in Europe ; but he is mista- 

 ken in supposing that it is also the adult of the African spe- 

 cies. 



The height of the animal under consideration, as descri^ 

 bed by authors, varies from five to seven feet ; it has so near 

 an approximation to the human form, as to have been 

 thought by some superficial naturalists, a part of the human 

 species. The last joint of its fingers, the palms of its hands, 

 the soles of its feet, and its face, like the same parts of the 

 human form, are free from hair. The depression of its nose, 

 however, the lowness of its forehead, the absence of a prom- 

 inence of the chin, and the general proportion and orbiculari- 

 ty of the face, strongly distinguish it from the symmetry of the 

 human countenance. The animal is represented as walking 

 erect, as possessing a degree of sagacity approaching to hu- 

 man intelligence, and as exhibiting in common with man, 

 feelings of aversion and attachment. These traits so far as 



* We now give the sequel of the " extracts and abstracts" mentioned in the 

 last number, page 369, which were prepared some time since, but which ap- 

 pear to be still interesting and valuable. Prof. Griscom's recent extracts fol- 

 low as usual. — Editor. 



Vol. XV.— No. 1. 21 



