MAMMALOGY. 



difficulty touch the heel ; in the greater elevation or prominence of 

 the sutures of the skull there is a material difference between the 

 Pongo and the younger animal ; th^ skull of the latter is much 

 smoother, and exhibits only a very slight indication of the sutural 

 elevations or ridges which are conspicuous in the larger animal, but 

 which when considered with due attention demonstrate only the 

 great increase in growth and age of the animal, as we observe in 

 various other animals. The most striking difference, as it appeared 

 to us, was the more perfect formation of the great toes, which both ia 

 the Pongo and in the rufous Orang Outang has three joints, while in 

 in our example in the College of Surgeons there are only two, the 

 third being wanting in the skeleton, and which was indeed sufficient- 

 ly apparent in the living animal. We observed likewise, that in the 

 preserved skin of the Rufous Orang^Outang in the Paris museum, the 

 nails of the great toes were perfectly well-formed, of a hard consistency 

 and larger than the rest. In the example to which we have so frequently 

 alluded, there is no indication whatever of any nail upon the great 

 toe. Is this accidental ? or is it any indication of another species ? 

 Or can it possibly be any criterion of the sexes ? This latter idea 

 seems scarcely admissable, but it may not be unworthy of remark 

 that the specimen in Paris was a female, that in England of the 

 male sex. 



Before any opportunity had occurred to us of examining the 

 skeleton of the Pongo, we were pretty well assured that in the adult 

 state our species must be of magnitude far superior to the example 

 we had seen alive. This idea was founded upon a comparison of 

 the skull of that skeleton with another skull of comparatively gigantic 

 size, very lately received from Borneo and preserved in the College 



