Medical and physical researches, or, Original memoirs in medicine, surgery, physiology, geology, zoology, and comparative anatomy / by R. Harlan.

  • Harlan, Richard, 1796-1843.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical and physical researches, or, Original memoirs in medicine, surgery, physiology, geology, zoology, and comparative anatomy / by R. Harlan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    would at once set up his usual cry, which he sometimes gradually brought down to a kind of moan, but generally resumed his louder tone when I approached him. This animal was a male, but showed no particular marks of the sex, and by a casual glance might readily, if not examined more closely, have passed for a female. I have no idea of his age, but judging from the size and length of his canine teeth, suppose him to have been advanced in life. The other large i Hoolock,' of which you have the cranium, was also a male and full grown ; he was likewise obtained from the Garrow-Hills in Assam, presented to me by my friend Captain A. Davidson of Goalpara. He came into my possession in the month of April, and died at sea in July, just before getting up with the Cape of Good Hope, of a catarrhal aiFection : his death probably might have been hastened from the want of proper food, such as is not procurable on long voyages. This animal was similar in habit and general characters to the one al- ready described, and may have been eight or ten years of age or perhaps older, as I am informed by the natives of Assam they live to the age of twenty-five or thirty years. 11 The young specimen was also alive in my possession —this is a female, and was brought to me by a Garrow In- dian at the same time the first was received, but died on the way from Goalpara to Calcutta of a pulmonary disease following catarrh. This poor little creature when first taken sick suffered great pain and oppression at the chest, for which I prescribed a cathartic of castor oil and calo- mel, and a warm bath, which seemed to afford it some temporary relief, but she died after ten days illness. The animal appeared delighted with the bath, and when I re- moved her from the vessel she would run back again to the water, and lie down again until again removed ; she was, like the others I had in my possession, gentle and pacific in disposition, very timid and shy of strangers, but in less than a week from the time she was taken, would, if put 3