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strength, as to answer in some measure the purpose of a fifth limb, 

 enabling the animal to grasp with it the branches of trees or other 

 objects, to assist in climbing. . These are called prehensile tails. 

 The orang-outan and chimpanzee are the most celebrated of the 

 foot-handed animals, for their similarity in face and form to the 

 human race ; whilst many other species, by their elongated snout, 

 depressed forehead, and other particulars, approach more nearly 

 to other quadrupeds. 



APES. 



The Orang-outan, or wild man of the woods, found ii 

 Borneo and Sumatra, is the largest of all the apes. It possesses 

 immense strength, and is an animal remarkable not only from being 

 extremely rare, but as having, in many respects, a strong resem- 

 blance to man. What is technically denominated the cranium is 

 perfectly human in its appearance ; the shape of the upper part of 

 the head, the forehead, the eyes (which are dark and full), the 

 eyelashes, and, indeed, ererything relating to the eyes and ears, 

 differing in no respect from man. The hair of his head, however, 

 is merely the same which covers his body generally. The nose is 

 very flat, the distance between it and the mouth considerable j 

 the chin, and, in fact, the whole of the lower jaw, is very large, 

 and his teeth, twenty-six in number, are strong. The lower part 

 of his face is what may be termed an ugly oi jaricature likeness 

 of the human countenance. The position of the scapulae, or 

 shoulder-blades, the general form of the shoulders and breasts, as 

 well as the figure of the arms, the elbow-joint especially, and the 

 hands, strongly continue the resemblance. The metacarpal, or that 

 part of the hand immediately above the fingers, is somewhat elon- 

 gated ; and, by the thumb being thrown a little higher up, nature 

 seems to have adapted the hand to his mode of life, and given him 

 the power of grasping more efiectually the branches of trees. 



He is corpulent £^bout the abdomen, or, in common phrase, 

 rather pot-bellied, looking like one of those figures of Bacchus 

 often seen riding on casks : but whether this is his natural appear- 

 ance when wild, or acquired since his introduction into new society, 

 3 * 



