Observations upon Presbytes albigena, Gray, and Colobus guereza, Rüppell / by James Murie.

  • Murie, James.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations upon Presbytes albigena, Gray, and Colobus guereza, Rüppell / by James Murie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    1865.] Post-mortem exarninntion disclosed death to have been caused by tuberculous disease, which affected the peritoneum, intestines, sj)lc'cn, portions of the left kidney and stomach, which were partly aggluti- nated together, preventing a minute anatomical investigation of these organs ; but the stomach to all appearance seemed simple, and with- out the sacculi peculiar to Semnopithecus and Colobus—so far, there- fore, distinct from either of these genera. I have compared the skull of the adult type specimen of Presbytes alhigena with the series of crania in the British Museum of Semno- pitheci, Colobi, Cercocebi, &c.; and the following are my notes re- specting them :— The cranium of P. albigena is altogether longer than that of either of the two species of Semnopithecus, S. melalophus and (S. obscurus, to which it bears resemblances outwardly, this length being in great part due to the elongation of the face, especially the maxillary and inter- maxillary bones. The upper incisors are also in a more horizontal plane. The greater backward extension of the parietal and occipital region also helps to increase the antero-posterior diameter. This difference is best seen in profile. Looking downwards upon the vertex, the parietal region in P. albigena is broader, and at the sagittal suture higher than in /S. melalophus and S. obscurus. On the con- trary, in these two species the frontal region appears higher than in P. albigena, by reason of the parietal flattening in them ; their skulls are also more compressed laterally. In P. albigena the zygo- matic arches are placed nearly in two parallel lines with the sides of the skull; but in S. obscurus, S. melalophus, and other Semnopitheci they are considerably arched. In these several cranial differences P. albitjena corresponds to Cercocebus cethiops and C. fuliginosus, which possess these cha- racters. In every one of the skulls of the species of Semnopithecus in the British Museum the orbits are comparatively wider, rounder, and more staring than in P. albigena, which agrees with the Cercocebi in this respect. The supraciliary ridges are higher and more marked in P. albigena; in the Semnopitheci the frontal bone is depressed immediately behind tlie ridges, which are thinner, projecting slightly forwards. The nasal bones in the genus Semnopithecus are short, nearly straight, and ilat; in P. albigena, as in the genus Cercocebus, they are more elongated ; in the latter they are wider inferiorly, in the former relatively somewhat wider superiorly, so that Semnopithecus has the widest root of nose. The nasal cavity in all the Semnopitheci extends rather higher than the lower margin of the orbit, in Cerco- cebus cethiops and C. fuliginosus it does not reach the orbit by af much as the other genus goes above, and in P. albigena, while agree ing with these last species, it is even slightly lower. The compa rative breadth of the face ojiposite the two maxillary bones is rela tively broadest and more entirely truncated in the Semnopitheci, while P. albigena again corresponds to the Cercocebi in the progna- thous and narrower appearance of these bones. Some species of the