366 
ORANG-OUTANG. 
Orang of M. Van Hoey, and two joints; while in the great toes of all 
the others there was but one : this difference appears rather to have been a 
lusus naturae ; for the great toe of the left foot was, as in the former Orangs, 
without a nail and with one joint. We may therefore conclude, that 
this is something peculiar to this species. For although the Gibbon by 
Landaard agrees in shape pretty well with the Orang, yet it has very large 
and visible nails on the great toes, the same as may be seen in the large as 
well as the small Gibbon of Buffon ; but still plainer in the skeleton which 
M. Van der Steeg had the goodness to send me not long ago from Batavia ; 
of which we are to speak more fully hereafter.” Manuscript translation of 
Camper’s Treatise of the Orang-Outang of Borneo. 
In addition to the facts adduced by Camper, I may state, that I have 
been indebted to the kindness of Sir Joseph Banks, for the opportunity of 
examining a manuscript notice respecting an Orang-Outang which he saw at 
Batavia, in the year 1770> i n which the character “ Pollex pedum sine ungue ” 
is distinctly stated. I have examined an Orang-Outang from Borneo, 
preserved in spirits in the College of Surgeons, and found it without 
nails on the great toes. The Orang-Outang described in the text, as I 
have already stated, is also without them. Thus, including Camper’s, 
there are no less than nine indisputable instances in which Orang-Outangs 
from Borneo or the neighbouring islands have been found without 
nails on their great toes. So many concurring testimonies respecting the 
existence of an important character in so many individuals of the same 
species would seem to be decisive in favour of admitting it as a specific dis- 
tinction of the animal. The absence of the nail is a character of the 
greater importance, from being, according to the experience of Camper, 
always accompanied by the absence of one of the phalanges of the great 
toes. 
Camper, however, has been blamed by a great naturalist, for considering 
the want of the nail a constant character in the Orang-Outang of Borneo : 
“ 11 a eu tort de croire que les angles manquent toujours d ses pouces de 
derriere .” * This opinion has, perhaps, been derived from the descriptions 
given by M. Frederick Cuvier t and Tilesiust of two Orang-Outangs 
* Rfegne Animal, tom. i. p. 103. 
t Appendix to Krusenstern’s Voyage. 
f Annales du Mus4um d’Hist. Nat. tom. 16. 
