MAMMALOGY. 



ceeding would require ; nor can we doubt, from the known strength 

 of the fore arms, in addition to their extent, that hke crutches to the 

 valetudinarian, they would in such a movement materially assist the 

 progress of the animal. Some travellers have asserted also^ that it 

 crawls upon its hands and feet, treading with its fore-arms as well as 

 feet, in the manner of quadrupeds ; and there are again others who 

 declare that it proceeds in an erect position, like a human being. 



All these accounts, so apparently discordant, may be readily 

 reconciled, by presuming that either of those movements are possible 

 to the Orang-Outang, as circumstances require ; and that with re- 

 spect to its walking erect occasionally, like man, there can be no more 

 doubt than of its proceeding in any other manner. 



Something very analogous to this is seen in the infant child of 

 the human race when unassisted by the nurse, and also in infirm 

 individuals, and in those at an advanced state of life. We are to recol- 

 lect that all the animals of this kind that have been seen alive in 

 Europe have been only infants of the race, and the human race, un- 

 aided during infancy in its movements, as appears lamentably 

 exemplified in those unfortunate beings of our kind that have been 

 found in a state of wildness, crawl upon the hands and feet, instead 

 of walking erect upon the feet, and, to use the expression of Linnaeus, 

 are moreover mute and hairy; and there are tribes of African savages who 

 are actually trained by their military chieftains to walk like quadrupeds 

 on their hands and feet. The similitude in those points is therefore 

 striking between the Orang-Outang and ferine man. We have been 

 particularly anxious for this reason to ascertain if this similitude 

 could be traced still more closely, whether, in a word, since man by 



VOL. II. Z 



