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THE FIRST RELIABLE ACCOUNT OF THE ORANG- 

 UTAN (SIMIA SATYRUS, L.). 



By J. C. Moulton, F.Z.S., Curator of the Sarawak Museum. 



In 'Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature' Prof. Huxley 

 gives a most interesting account of the natural history of Man- 

 like Apes, tracing the growth of our knowledge of them from 

 earliest records to 1863 (the year in which that book appeared). 



He writes that he has not met with any notice of these Man- 

 like Apes of earlier date than that contained in Pigafetta's 

 ' Regnum Congo ' (1558) ; in this, however, there is only a brief 

 note, and Huxley tells us that it is not till the publication of 

 Purchas's book in 1613 that we find the first account of two 

 Man-like Apes, written down by Purchas from the narrative of 

 one Andrew Battell, who spent many years in the Congo. He 

 called the larger kind the " Pongo," which is now known to us 

 as the Gorilla, the largest of the Man-like Apes, and the smaller 

 the " Engeco," now known as the Chimpanzee. Andrew Battell 

 therefore has the credit of being the "discoverer" (in the 

 European sense) of the Gorilla and Chimpanzee. 



Bontius apparently is one of the first to give an account of 

 an Orang-Utan (1658) ; but Huxley styles it as " altogether 

 fabulous and ridiculous," and says the picture given is "nothing 

 but a very hairy woman of rather comely aspect, and proportions 

 and feet wholly human." 



Yosmaer would appear to be the first to give a careful 

 account of a young Orang-Utan (1778), and a year or two after 

 we get a full description of an adult shot near Pontianak by a 

 Mr. Palm, a Dutch resident in Borneo. This animal was 

 examined by a German naturalist, Von Wurmb, who published 

 a careful description in Batavia. And although Huxley does not 

 expressly say so, we are led to infer that Vosmaer, Palm, and 

 Von Wurmb share the honour of being the first to tell us about 

 the Orang-Utan, and that only some 130 years ago. 

 Zoot. ith ser. vol. XVII., September, 1913. 2 d 



