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Show 8 Henry Prince of Orange. Tulpius says it w~s as big as a child of three years old, and as stout as one of 1x years : and that its back was covered with black hair. It is plainly a young Chimpanzee. . . . In the meanwhile, the existence of other, As1atic, man-hkc Apes became known, but at first in a very mythical fa hion. Thus Bontius {1658) gives an altogether fabulous and ridi· culous account and figure of an animal which he calls "Orang·outang"; and though he say , "vidi Ego cujus effigiem hie exhibeo," the said effigies ( ee fig. 6 for Hoppiu ' copy of it) is nothing but a very hairy woman of rather comely aspect, and with proportions and feet wholly human. The judicious English anatomist, Ty on, was ju tified in saying of this description by Bontius, "I confe s I do mistru t the whole representation." It is to the last mentioned writer, and his coadjutor Cowper, that we owe the first account of a man-like ape which has any pretensions to scientific accuracy and completeness. The treatise entitled, u Orang-outang, ive Horno Sylvestris; or the Anatomy of a Pygmie compared with that of a Monkey, an Ape, and a Man," published by the RoyHl Society in 1699, is, indeed, a work of remarkable merit, and has, in some respects, served as a model to subsequent inquirers. This "Pygmie," Tyson tells us, "was brought from Angola, in Africa; but was first taken a great deal higher up the country;" its hair "was of a coal-black colour, and strait," and "when it went as a quadruped on all four, 'twas awkwardly; not placing the palm of the hand flat to the ground, but it walk'd upon its knuckles, as I observed it to do when weak and had not strength enough to support its body."-" From the top of the head to the heel of the foot, in a strait line, it measured twenty-six inches." These characters, even without Tyson's good figures (figs. 3 and 4), would have been sufficient to prove his "Pygmie" to be a young Chimpanzee. But the opportunity of examining the skeleton of the very animal Tyson anatomiscd 9 having most unexpectedly presented itself to me, I am able to bear independent testimony to its being a veritable Trog- FIGs. 3 & 4.-The 'Pygmie' reduced from Tyson's :figul'es I and 2, 16!)9. lodytes niger,* though still very young. Although fully appreciating the resemblances between his Pygmie and Man, Tyson by no means overlooked the differences between the two and he concludes his memoir by summing up first, the ' points in which "the Ourang-outang _or Pygmie more re-sembled a Man than Apes and Monkeys do,'' under forty-seven distinct heads; and then giving, in thirty-four similar brief paragraphs, the respects in which "the Ourang-outang. or * I am indebted to Dr. Wright, of Cheltenham, whose paleontologieallabours arc so well known, for bringing this interesting· relic to my knowledge. Tyson's granddaughter, it appears, married Dr. Allardyce, a physician of repute in Cheltenham, and brought, as part of her dowry, the skeleton of the 'Pygmie.' Dr. Allar<lyce presented it to the Cheltenham Museum, and, through the ~·oo~ offices ofmy friend Dr. Wright, the authorities of the Mnseum have permitte (t me to borrow, what is, perhaps, its most remarkable ornament. |
