THE ANATOMY OF THE ORANG OUTANG 
(SIMIA SATYRUS). 
AN ACCOUNT OF SOME OF ITS EXTERNAL CHARACTERISTICS : AND 
THE MYOLOGY OF THE EXTREMITIES. 
( Reprinted by permission from the Transactions of the Canadian Institute^ i8g8-gg ). 
A brief note concerning the external features of the Orang Outang 
was read by me before the Canadian Institute on December i8th, 1897. 
Since that time I have had an opportunity of dissecting the animal, and 
of consulting the literature on the subject. I propose, in this paper, to 
give a detailed account of some of its external features, and then to deal 
at some length with the anatomy of the muscles of the extremities. 
The musculature in the anthropoid apes is of great interest when studied 
from the comparative standpoint, and in the Orang, which I have been 
fortunate in securing, some unusual conditions present themselves which 
make the enquiry of special interest. 
The anatomy of the anthropoid apes has excited the interest of 
scientists for very many years. The old anatomist Tyson^ described 
the Chimpanzee two centuries ago. Whilst his paper is entitled “ The 
Orang Outang, or the Anatomy of a Pygmie,” it would appear that the 
creature which he dissected was in reality a Chimpanzee. Many ana- 
tomists since the time of Tyson have been interested in the anatomy of 
the anthropoid apes, and the reason the subject possesses so much 
fascination for the scientific enquirer was well expressed by Owen^ more 
than half a century ago, when he wrote : “ In tracing the successive 
stages by which the lower animals approximate the structure of man, 
the interest increases as we advance, and becomes most exciting when 
we arrive at the highest term of the brute creation. At this point every 
deviation from the human structure indicates with precision its real 
1 Edward Tyson, M.D., “Orang-Outang’, sive Homo Sylvestris, or the Anatomy of a Pygmie compared 
with that of a Monkey, an Ape, and a Man.” London, 1699. 
2 Richard Owen, “ On the Osteology of the Chimpanzee and Orang Utan." Transactions of the Zoo- 
logical Society of London, Vol. I, 1835, p. 343. 
