Part 10

Internally this animal differs from man in the number of its ribs; having thirteen, whereas man has only twelve. The vertebræ of the neck are also shorter, the bones of the pelvis narrower, the haunches more flat, and the orbits of the eyes sunk deeper. There is no spiny apophysis to the first vertebræ of the neck; the kidnies are rounder than in the human species, and the ureters have a different figure, as well as the bladder and gall-bladder, which are much longer and narrower. In almost every other part, as well externally as internally, there is so perfect a resemblance to those of the human species, that we cannot compare them without expressing our wonder and admiration, that from such a similar conformation and organization the same effects are not produced. For example, the tongue, and all the organs of the voice, are exactly the same as in man, and yet this animal does not speak; the brain is absolutely of the same form and proportion, and yet it does not think. Can there be a more convincing proof, that matter alone, however perfectly organized, cannot produce either speech or thought, unless animated by a superior principle? or, in other words, by a soul to direct its operations? Man, and the orang-outang, are the only animals which have calfs to their legs, and their posteriors formed for walking erect. They likewise are the only ones which have a broad chest, flat shoulders, and the vertebræ conformable to each other; and the only animals whose brain, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, stomach, and intestines, are perfectly alike, and who have a vermicular appendix. In short, the orang-outang has a greater resemblance to man than even to baboons or monkeys, not only by all the parts which I have indicated, but also by the largeness of the visage, the form of the cranium, the jaws, teeth, and other bones of the head and face; by the thickness of the fingers and thumb; by the shape of the nails; by the articulations of the joints, sternum, &c. So that since we find, by comparing this animal with those which resemble it most, such as the magot, baboon, or monkey, it has a greater conformity with the human than the animal species, which have all been mentioned under the general name of apes, the Indians are excusable for having associated it with man by the name of _orang-outang_, or the _wild man of the woods_. As some of the facts we have mentioned may appear suspicious to those who have not seen this animal, we shall support them by the authority of the two celebrated anatomists Tyson[M] and Cowper, who dissected it with a most scrupulous nicety, and have given the results of the comparisons they made of all its parts with the human species. I shall only observe, that the English are not confined, like the French, to one single word to denote animals of this kind: they have, like the Greeks, two different denominations, one for those without tails, which they call apes, and the other for those with tails, which they term monkeys. Those which Tyson speaks of by the word _apes_ must be the same animals as we have called pithecos, or pigmy, and the cynocephalus, or Barbary ape. I must also remark, that this author gives some characters of resemblance and difference which have not a sufficient foundation. I have therefore thought it necessary to make some observations on those particulars, as we cannot too minutely examine a creature, which, though it has the form of a man, nevertheless belongs to the brute species.

[Footnote M: The orang-outang bears a greater resemblance to man than to the apes or monkeys; because, 1. The hairs on his shoulders are directed downwards, and those on the arm upwards. 2. His face is broader and flatter than that of the apes. 3. The form of his ears resembles that of man, excepting the cartilaginous part being thin, like the apes. 4. His fingers are much thicker in proportion than the apes. 5. He is, in every particular, formed for walking erect, which apes are not. 6. His posteriors are thicker than those of apes. 7. He has calfs to his legs. 8. His breast and shoulders are broader than those of any ape. 9. His heels are longer. 10. He has a cellular membrane, like man, under the skin. 11. His peritonæum is entire. 12. His intestines are longer than those of apes. 13. The intestinal canal is of different diameters, as in man, and not nearly equal, as in apes. 14. His cæcum has a vermicular appendix, which is not the case in any other ape, nor is the neck of the colon so long as in the latter. 15. The insertions of the biliary and pancreatic ducts have but one common orifice in the orang-outang as well as in man, but in all apes and monkeys they are two inches asunder. 16. The colon is longer than that of the apes. 17. The liver is not divided into lobes as in the apes, but entire, like that of man. 18. The biliary vessels are also the same: as are, 19. The spleen. 20. The pancreas; and 21. The number of lobes in the lungs. 22. The pericardium is attached to the diaphragm, as in man. 23. The cone of the heart is more blunt than in apes. 24. He has no pouches at the bottom of the cheeks, as other apes have. 25. His brain is larger than that of apes, and formed exactly like the human brain. 26. The cranium is rounder, and double the size of that of monkeys. 27. All the sutures of the cranium are similar to those of man, which is not the case in other apes or monkeys. 28. He has the _os cribriforme_ and the _crista galli_, which the monkeys have not. 29. He has the _sella equina_ exactly the same as in man, while the apes and monkeys have it more prominent. 30. They have the _processus pteregoides_ like man, while the others have not. 31. The temporal bones, and the _ossa bregmatis_ are the same as in man, but in apes and monkeys these bones are of a different form. 32. The latter have the _os zygomaticus_ large, whereas it is small in this animal. 33. The teeth, particularly the grinders, are more like man's than those of the ape or monkey, as also are, 34. The transverse apophyses of the vertebræ of the neck, and the sixth and seventh vertebræ. 35. The vertebræ of the neck are not perforated as in apes, but entire as in man. 36. The vertebræ of the back and their apophyses, are the same as in man; and in the lower vertebræ, there are only two inferior apophyses, but in the apes there are four. 37. As in man there are only five lumber vertebræ, but in monkeys there are six or seven. 38. The spinal apophyses of the lumber vertebræ are straight as in man. 39. The _os sacrum_ is composed of five vertebræ, as in man, but in apes or monkeys of only three. 40. As in man, the _coccix_ is composed of four bones, and not perforated, whereas in apes, it is composed of a greater number of bones, all of which are perforated. 41. In the orang-outang, there are only seven true ribs, and the extremities of the false ribs are all cartilaginous and articulated with the vertebræ; but in apes and monkeys, there are eight true ribs, and the extremities of the false ribs are osseous, and their articulations are placed in the intestines between the vertebræ. 42. His iternum is broad like that of man, but which is narrow in monkeys. 43. The bones of the four fingers are thicker than those of apes. 44. The thigh bone is like that of man. 45. The rotula is round, long, and single, but double in the apes. 46. The heel _tarsus_ and _metatarsus_ are like those of man. 47. The middle toe is not so long as that of the apes. 48. The _obliquus inferior capitis_, _pyriformis_, and _biceps femoris_ muscles, are like those of man, but which are different in the apes or monkeys.

The orang-outang _differs_ from the human species more than from apes and monkey: 1. The thumb is proportionally smaller than that of man, but larger than that of the apes. 2. The palm of the hand is longer and narrower. 3. The toes approach those of the ape, by their length. 4. As he does by having the large toe of the foot placed at an inch distance from the next one, and which makes him rather be considered as a four-handed animal than a quadruped. 5. His thighs are shorter than those of man; and 6. His arms are longer. 7. The testicles are not pendulous. 8. The epiloon is larger. 9. The gall-bladder is longer. 10. The kidneys are rounder, and the ureters are also different from man. 11. The bladder is longer. 12. He has no _frænum_ to the prepuce. 13. The bone in the orbit of the eye is sunk deeper. 14. He has not the two cavities below the _tella turica_. 15. The mastoid and styloid processes are extremely small. 16. The bones of the nose are flat. 17. The vertebræ of the neck are short, flat before, and their spinal apophyses are not forked. 18. He has no spinal apophyses in the first vertebræ of the neck. 19. He has thirteen ribs on each side. 20. The _ossa ilia_ are longer, narrower, and less concave than in man. 21. He also wants the following muscles, which are found in man: the _occipitales_, _frontales_, _dilitatories alarum nasi seu elevotores labij superioris_, _interspinales calli glutæi minimi extensor digitorum pedis brevis et transversalis pedis_. 22. The following muscles are sometimes found in man, but not in the orang-outang, the _pyramidales_, _caro musculosa quadrata_, the long tendon and the fleshy body of the _palmaris_, the _attolens_, and _retrobans oriculam_. 23. The _elevator_ muscles of the claricles of the orang-outang are like those of the ape, and different from man; as are also 24. The muscles called, _longus colli_, _pectoralis_, _latissimus dorsi_, _glutæus maximus et medius_, _psoas magnus et parvus_, _iliacus_, _internus_, _et gasteronamius internus_. And 25. He differs from man in the figure of the _deltoides_, _pronator_, _radi teres_, _et extensor pollicis brevii_.--Tyson's Anat. of the Orang-Outang.]

1. Tyson gives, as a particular character of man and the orang-outang, the having the hair on their shoulders inclined downward, and that on the arms upwards. It is true that most quadrupeds have their hair directed downwards, or backwards, but this is not without some exceptions. The sloth and the smallest species of ant-eater have the hair on their anterior parts inclined backward, and that on the crupper and loins directed forwards; therefore this character carries no great weight in comparing the orang-outang with man.

2. The four first differences also in the passage I have quoted are very slight, or ill-founded. The first is the difference of size, which character is very uncertain, especially as the author himself observes that his animal was very young. The second, third, and fourth, are drawn from the form of the nose, the quantity of hair, and other trivial circumstances. It is the same with many others, which may be retrenched; for example, the twenty-first character is drawn from the number of the teeth. It is certain that both this animal and man have the like number of teeth, and if the one in question had only twenty-eight, it ought to be attributed to its youth, for we know that the human race have not more in the early part of their days.

3. The seventh difference is likewise very equivocal; the scrotum of children is in general very tight, and this animal being young ought not to have had them pendulous.

4. The forty-eighth character of resemblance, and the twenty-first, twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, and twenty-fifth marks of difference, only denote the presence or shape of certain muscles, which as they vary in most individuals of the human species, ought not to be considered as essential characters.

5. Every difference and resemblance drawn from parts too minute, such as the apophyses of the vertebræ, or that are taken from the position and magnitude of certain parts, should be considered only as accessory characters; so that Tyson's whole anatomical table may be reduced to the essential differences and resemblances which we have already mentioned.

6. I have thought it necessary to point out other more general characters of this animal, some of which have been omitted by Tyson, and others but badly indicated. First, The orang-outang is the only one of all the apes that has no pouches within his cheeks on each side of the jaw, in which to put the provisions before they swallow them, for the inside of his mouth is perfectly like that of man. Secondly, the gibbon, the Barbary ape, and all the baboon and monkey kind, except the douc, have their posteriors flat, with callosities on them. The orang-outang is the only one which has those parts plump, and without callosities. The douc also has no callosities, but then his posteriors are flat and covered with hair, so that in this respect the douc forms the shade between the orang-outang and the monkeys; as the gibbon and magot form the same knot with respect to the pouches on each side of the jaw. Thirdly, the orang-outang is the only animal who has the calfs of the legs, and fleshy posteriors. This character shews that it is formed much better than any other animal to walk upright; but as its toes are very long, and its heels higher situated than in man, it runs with greater ease than it walks, and there would be occasion for artificial heels higher than those of our shoes to enable it to walk easily for a long time together. Fourthly, though the orang-outang has thirteen ribs, and man only twelve, this difference does not approximate it nearer to the baboon or monkey than it removes it from man, because the number of ribs varies in most of those species, some of them having twelve, others eleven, ten, and so on. So that the only differences between the body of this animal and that of man are reduced to two, viz. the figure of the bones of the pelvis, and the formation of the feet; these, therefore, are the only considerable parts by which the orang-outang bears a greater resemblance to the other apes than it does to the human species.

From this examination, which I have made with all the exactness I am capable of, we may form a tolerably correct judgment of this animal. If there were a step by which we could descend from human nature to that of the brutes, and if the essence of this nature consisted entirely in the form of the body, and depended on its organization, the orang-outang would approach nearer to man than to any other animal. Seated in the second rank of beings, if it could not command in the first, it would at least make others feel its superiority. If the principle of imitation, by which he seems so closely to copy the actions of man, were a result of thought or reason, this ape would be at a still greater distance from the brute species, and nearer the human; but, as we have observed, the interval which separates them is not trifling, and the resemblance in form, conformity of organization, and motions of imitation, which seem to result from those similitudes, neither bring it nearer the nature of man, nor raise it above that of the brutes.

_Distinctive Characters of this Species._

The orang-outang has no pouches on the sides of the jaws, no tail, nor any callosities on the posteriors, which last are plump and fleshy: all his teeth are similar to those of man: his face is flat, naked, and of a swarthy colour; his hands, feet, ears, breast, and belly, are also naked: the hair on the head descends on the sides of the temples like tresses; on his back and loins there is but a very small quantity of hair[N]: he is about five or six feet high, and always walks erect on his two hind feet. We have not been able to verify whether the females are subject to periodical courses like women: analogy will scarcely suffer a doubt to arise to the contrary.

[Footnote N: According to Pennant this hair is of a reddish colour, and shaggy.]

THE PITHECOS, OR PIGMY.

Aristotle says, "there are animals whose nature are ambiguous, and partake, in some measure, of the human and quadruped species; such as the pithecos, the kebes, and the cynocephali. The kebe is a pithecos with a tail; the cynocephalus is perfectly like the pithecos, but larger, stronger, and has a more pointed muzzle, approaching very near that of a bull-dog, from which it derives its name: its manners are also more ferocious, and its teeth stronger than those of the pithecos, and more resemble those of a dog." It is clear, from this passage, that neither the pithecos nor cynocephalus, mentioned by Aristotle, have any tail; for he says, that the pithecos with a tail, is called _kebe_; and that the cynocephalus resembles the pithecos in every particular, except the muzzle and teeth. Aristotle, therefore, speaks of two apes without tails, the pithecos and the cynocephalus; and of others with tails, which he calls _kebes_. Now, to compare what we at present know with what was known by Aristotle, we shall observe, that we have seen three species of apes without tails, namely, the orang-outang, the gibbon, and the magot, not one of which is the pithecos; for the two first were certainly unknown to Aristotle, being only found in the southern parts of Africa and India, which were not discovered till after his time: besides, they have very different characters from those he ascribes to the pithecos. But the third species, which we call the magot, or Barbary ape, is the cynocephalus of Aristotle, for it possesses all its characters; it has no tail, its muzzle is like that of a bull-dog, and its canine teeth are large and long. This animal is also found in Asia Minor, and in other provinces of the East, and with which the Greeks were well acquainted. The pithecos belongs to the same country, but we have not seen it, and know it only from the relations of travellers, and, although during twenty years, in which we have made the research of these animals our study, this species has not fallen under our inspection, yet we do not doubt but that it as really exists as the cynocephalus. Gesner and Johnston have given figures of this pithecos. M. Brisson mentions his having seen it, and he distinguishes it from the cynocephalus, which he also saw, and confirms Aristotle's remark that these two animals perfectly resemble each other in every respect, excepting the face, which is shorter in the cynocephalus than in the pithecos. We have already observed, that the orang-outang, the pithecos, the gibbon, and the magot, are the only animals to which we can apply the generic name of ape, being the only animals which have no tail, and rather choose to walk on two legs than four. The orang-outang, and the gibbon, are very different from the pithecos and the magot. But, as the two latter perfectly resemble each other, except in the length of the muzzle, and size of the canine teeth, they have been often taken for each other. They have always been mentioned by the common name of ape, even in languages which have one name for apes without tails, and another for apes which have tails. They are both called by the name of _aff_ in German, and _ape_ in English; and it is only among the Greeks that we find that each of these animals has a proper name. The word cynocephalus is rather an adjective than a proper substantive, for which reason we have not adopted it.

It appears from the testimonies of the ancients, that the pithecos, or pigmy, was the most gentle and docile of all the ape species that were known to them; and that it was common in Asia, as well as in Lybia, and in the other provinces of Africa, frequented by the Greek and Roman travellers. Therefore I presume that we must refer the following passages of Leo Africanus, and Marmol to the pigmy. They say, that the apes with long tails, which are seen in Mauritania, and are called by the Africans _mones_, come from the negro country; but that those without tails are found in great numbers, and are natives of the mountains of Mauritania, Bugie, and Constantine. "These animals, says Marmol, have feet and hands like a man, and, if I may be allowed the expression, a human face; they have an appearance of much vivacity, and seem very malicious. They live upon corn, herbs, and all sorts of fruits, to obtain which they sally forth in large troops, to plunder the gardens or fields; but before they venture out on these expeditions one of the company ascends an eminence, and surveys the country round. If there be no person near, he makes a signal by a cry, for his companions to proceed, remaining himself, however, at his station: but as soon as he perceives any one coming, he sets up a loud cry, and the whole company scamper off with the utmost precipitation, and jumping from tree to tree, retreat to the mountains. It is a great curiosity to see these animals retreat; for the females carry four or five young ones upon their backs, and with this heavy load, leap with great agility from branch to branch; yet great numbers of them are taken, by different snares, notwithstanding all their cunning. When they are angry, they bite furiously, but by coaxing, they are easily tamed. They do great damage to the gardens and fields, because they pluck, pull down, and tear up, every thing that comes in their way, whether ripe or not, and often destroy more than they can eat or carry away. Those that are tamed, perform things almost incredible, and imitate almost every human action!" Kolbe relates nearly the same facts with respect to the apes of the Cape of Good Hope: but the description and figure he gives of them, plainly prove they are baboons, having a short tail, a long muzzle, sharp nails, &c. they are also much larger and stronger than the apes of Mauritania. We may therefore presume, that Kolbe only copied this passage from Marmol, and applied the natural habitudes of the Mauritania pigmies to the baboons of the Cape of Good Hope.