Elements of physiology / Translated from the German by William Dunbar How.

  • Karl Rudolphi
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of physiology / Translated from the German by William Dunbar How. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    71/312 (page 19)
    Zn Sei ee has partly arisen from too much faith having been put in the fabulous narratives of travellers, and particularly, from the moreresembling Pongo, when young, having been considered | as a distinct animal under the name of Orang-Utang (Simia Satyrus). Rem. The having shewn the Orang-Utang to be merely a young Pongo, is one of the most interesting discoveries of later years, as by means of this we find that the so highly boasted anthropomorphum merely exhibits that period of transition, when the lower animals appear more closely to resemble man in the form of their individual parts. Ti- lesius was the first who formed this conjecture, and Cuvier has since declared himself to be decided to the same effect. Lawrence (Physiol. p. 113.) brings forward very good grounds for entertaining a similar opinion. Ihave a young mandril in the anatomical Museum, which approaches so near to man in appearance, that scarcely any person would imagine him to be a baboon. What Abel says on the contrary is of no importance. Homo troglodytes, nocturnus, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. xii— Pet. Camper, De l’Orang-Utang.—W. Gott]. Tilesius, Naturhist. Früchte der ersten russischen Erdumseglung. Petersb. 1813, 4to, s. 109—130. with ex- cellent plates of the animal from the Atlas of Krusenstern. A beauti- ful engraving, with a description, may be found in Clarke Abel’s Nar- rative of a Journey in the interior of China. Lond. 1818, 8vo, p. 320330, 365—373. For the sake of brevity I must pass over the older writings, as well as the later ones of Vosmaer and Oskamp. For figures of the scull of the Orang-Utang see, Camper, l. c. Tab. 1II.—Blumenbach, Abbild. naturhist. Gegenstände, Tab. 52.—Cuvier, Tableau élément. d. l’hist. nat. Tab. 3.—Crull, (vide 30.) J.B. Aude- bert hasgiven a plate exhibiting a front view of the scull and whole skeleton of the Pongo, in his Histoire naturelle des singes et des Makis, Paris, An. 8. fol. p. 21. Tabb. anat. II. fig.5.6. 23. Later authors have considered man as a descendant of the stock, and in process of time become ennobled ; but such EICH, B2