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Show 1897.] ON THE ORANG-OUTANG IN THE SOCIETYS GARDENS. 721 June 15, 1897. Dr. ST. GEORGE MIVART, F.E.S., V.P., in the Chair. The Secretary read the following report on the additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of M a y 1897. The registered additious to the Society's Menagerie during the month of M a y were 199 in number. Of these 63 were acquired by presentation, 22 by purchase, 65 in exchange, 7 were born in the Gardens, and 42 were received on deposit. The total number of departures during the same period, by death and removals, was 113. Amongst these special attention was called t o :- 1. A fine collection of West-Indian and North-American Eep-tiles, presented by Mr. E. E . Mole, C M.Z.S., M a y 11th, 1897. 2. Two Blue Penguins (Eudyptula minor), from N e w Zealand, purchased May 21st. Only one example of this elegant little Penguin has been previously received by the Society. Dr. G. H . Fowler, on behalf of the Zoological Museum at University College, exhibited the unique specimen of a Crab (Carclnus mcenas) recently described by Dr. Bethe, which carried a right thoracic leg on the left half of the sixth abdominal segment. Mr. Keith exhibited some lantern-slides of the Orang-outang, lately living in the Society's Gardens. H e pointed out that the Orang assumed the same posture as man in sleep, prone upon its side, with its arms and legs folded on its belly, one hand over and one hand under its head, and that the hair was arranged to afford the animal protection while it was in that posture. The hair upon the body and limbs formed together a continuous thatch for the animal while it slept. This explanation accounted for the transverse direction of the hairs upon the distal portions of the leg, foot, forearm, and hand. H e was unable to verify the distinction Dr. Walker Kidd had drawn between the human and anthropoid types of hair-arrangement on the limbs. In the Orang, as in man, there was a distinct line of division between the dorsal and ventral hairs on the body, the line running from the groin to the axilla and some way on to the thigh below and the arm above. This line might be called the inguino-axillary line of division. While the meaning of this " hair-shed " in m a n was obscure, its explanation was perfectly evident in the Orang. Along that line, the thigh and arm were folded on the belly, the hair on the body dorsal to that line being, in the sleeping posture, continuous with the hair on the thighs aud arms, while ventral to the line the hair was grouped round the umbilicus. The present animal had died of acute disseminated tuberculosis, the primary seat of infection being probably in the intestines, |
