33i CLASS MAMMALIA. 



anatomy, both human and comparative), there was yet a 

 very striking difference of dimensions between the two 

 species. This was so remarkable, that even had the ape 

 exhibited a nearer approach to human organization, the 

 ancients would have regarded him but as an homunculus, 

 an unfinished dwarf, or a feeble pigmy, capable at best of 

 warring only with the cranes, while it was the proud privi- 

 lege of man to tame the elephant and subdue the lion. 



But when the eastern Archipelago, the regions of India, 

 and southern Africa, were open to the researches of tra- 

 vellers, another animal was discovered resembling the ape 

 already known, but which the lovers of the marvellous had 

 invested with the attributes of human stature, strength, 

 and sagacity. This was the orang-outang, which from its 

 possession of the characters above-mentioned came within 

 the limits of the definition, and was accordingly named an 

 ape, by Linnaeus and other writers, and subsequently by 

 Buffon. 



A third animal, wanting a tail, and exhibiting a general 

 resemblance of structure to the two last, in spite of the 

 immeasurable disproportion of the arms, seemed entitled 

 to the same generic epithet, and accordingly received it. 

 This was the Gibbon or Simia Lar, with its varieties the 

 Leucisca and Simia Lar minor. 



These species constituted the entire family of apes in the 

 time of Buffon, who nearly confounded together the orang 

 and the Chimpanse, and formed from the combinations of 

 his own fancy an animal which he called the Pongo. The 

 Pithecus, which we have seen is no other than the Magot, 

 or Simia innuus, has no business among the apes, and the 

 real Pongo, which has all the essentialities of a baboon, is 

 yet distinguished by that want of tail which was assigned 

 by former naturalists as the characteristic peculiarity of 

 the ape kind. This, if any evidence indeed were wanting 

 on the subject, is sufficient to demonstrate the absurdity 



