Internally this animal differs from man in the number of its ribs; having thirteen, whereas man has only twelve. The vertebræ of the neck are also shorter, the bones of the pelvis narrower, the haunches more flat, and the orbits of the eyes sunk deeper. There is no spiny apophysis to the first vertebræ of the neck; the kidnies are rounder than in the human species, and the ureters have a different figure, as well as the bladder and gall-bladder, which are much longer and narrower. In almost every other part, as well externally as internally, there is so perfect a resemblance to those of the human species, that we cannot compare them without expressing our wonder and admiration, that from such a similar conformation and organization the same effects are not produced. For example, the tongue, and all the organs of the voice, are exactly the same as in man, and yet this animal does not speak; the brain is absolutely of the same form and proportion, and yet it does not think. Can there be a more convincing proof, that matter alone, however perfectly organized, cannot produce either speech or thought, unless animated by a superior principle? or, in other words, by a soul to direct its operations? Man, and the orang-outang, are the only animals which have calfs to their legs, and their posteriors formed for walking erect. They likewise are the only ones which have a broad chest, flat shoulders, and the vertebræ conformable to each other; and the only animals whose brain, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, stomach, and intestines, are perfectly alike, and who have a vermicular appendix. In short, the orang-outang has a greater resemblance to man than even to baboons or monkeys, not only by all the parts which I have indicated, but also by the largeness of the visage, the form of the cranium, the jaws, teeth, and other bones of the head and face; by the thickness of the fingers and thumb; by the shape of the nails; by the articulations of the joints, sternum, &c. So that since we find, by comparing this animal with those which resemble it most, such as the magot, baboon, or monkey, it has a greater conformity with the human than the animal species, which have all been mentioned under the general name of apes, the Indians are excusable for having associated it with man by the name of orang-outang, or the wild man of the woods. As some of the facts we have mentioned may appear suspicious to those who have not seen this animal, we shall support them by the authority of the two celebrated anatomists Tyson[M] and Cowper, who dissected it with a most scrupulous nicety, and have given the results of the comparisons they made of all its parts with the human species. I shall only observe, that the English are not confined, like the French, to one single word to denote animals of this kind: they have, like the Greeks, two different denominations, one for those without tails, which they call apes, and the other for those with tails, which they term monkeys. Those which Tyson speaks of by the word apes must be the same animals as we have called pithecos, or pigmy, and the cynocephalus, or Barbary ape. I must also remark, that this author gives some characters of resemblance and difference which have not a sufficient foundation. I have therefore thought it necessary to make some observations on those particulars, as we cannot too minutely examine a creature, which, though it has the form of a man, nevertheless belongs to the brute species.
[M] The orang-outang bears a greater resemblance to man than to the apes or monkeys; because, 1. The hairs on his shoulders are directed downwards, and those on the arm upwards. 2. His face is broader and flatter than that of the apes. 3. The form of his ears resembles that of man, excepting the cartilaginous part being thin, like the apes. 4. His fingers are much thicker in proportion than the apes. 5. He is, in every particular, formed for walking erect, which apes are not. 6. His posteriors are thicker than those of apes. 7. He has calfs to his legs. 8. His breast and shoulders are broader than those of any ape. 9. His heels are longer. 10. He has a cellular membrane, like man, under the skin. 11. His peritonæum is entire. 12. His intestines are longer than those of apes. 13. The intestinal canal is of different diameters, as in man, and not nearly equal, as in apes. 14. His cæcum has a vermicular appendix, which is not the case in any other ape, nor is the neck of the colon so long as in the latter. 15. The insertions of the biliary and pancreatic ducts have but one common orifice in the orang-outang as well as in man, but in all apes and monkeys they are two inches asunder. 16. The colon is longer than that of the apes. 17. The liver is not divided into lobes as in the apes, but entire, like that of man. 18. The biliary vessels are also the same: as are, 19. The spleen. 20. The pancreas; and 21. The number of lobes in the lungs. 22. The pericardium is attached to the diaphragm, as in man. 23. The cone of the heart is more blunt than in apes. 24. He has no pouches at the bottom of the cheeks, as other apes have. 25. His brain is larger than that of apes, and formed exactly like the human brain. 26. The cranium is rounder, and double the size of that of monkeys. 27. All the sutures of the cranium are similar to those of man, which is not the case in other apes or monkeys. 28. He has the os cribriforme and the crista galli, which the monkeys have not. 29. He has the sella equina exactly the same as in man, while the apes and monkeys have it more prominent. 30. They have the processus pteregoides like man, while the others have not. 31. The temporal bones, and the ossa bregmatis are the same as in man, but in apes and monkeys these bones are of a different form. 32. The latter have the os zygomaticus large, whereas it is small in this animal. 33. The teeth, particularly the grinders, are more like man’s than those of the ape or monkey, as also are, 34. The transverse apophyses of the vertebræ of the neck, and the sixth and seventh vertebræ. 35. The vertebræ of the neck are not perforated as in apes, but entire as in man. 36. The vertebræ of the back and their apophyses, are the same as in man; and in the lower vertebræ, there are only two inferior apophyses, but in the apes there are four. 37. As in man there are only five lumber vertebræ, but in monkeys there are six or seven. 38. The spinal apophyses of the lumber vertebræ are straight as in man. 39. The os sacrum is composed of five vertebræ, as in man, but in apes or monkeys of only three. 40. As in man, the coccix is composed of four bones, and not perforated, whereas in apes, it is composed of a greater number of bones, all of which are perforated. 41. In the orang-outang, there are only seven true ribs, and the extremities of the false ribs are all cartilaginous and articulated with the vertebræ; but in apes and monkeys, there are eight true ribs, and the extremities of the false ribs are osseous, and their articulations are placed in the intestines between the vertebræ. 42. His iternum is broad like that of man, but which is narrow in monkeys. 43. The bones of the four fingers are thicker than those of apes. 44. The thigh bone is like that of man. 45. The rotula is round, long, and single, but double in the apes. 46. The heel tarsus and metatarsus are like those of man. 47. The middle toe is not so long as that of the apes. 48. The obliquus inferior capitis, pyriformis, and biceps femoris muscles, are like those of man, but which are different in the apes or monkeys.
The orang-outang differs from the human species more than from apes and monkey: 1. The thumb is proportionally smaller than that of man, but larger than that of the apes. 2. The palm of the hand is longer and narrower. 3. The toes approach those of the ape, by their length. 4. As he does by having the large toe of the foot placed at an inch distance from the next one, and which makes him rather be considered as a four-handed animal than a quadruped. 5. His thighs are shorter than those of man; and 6. His arms are longer. 7. The testicles are not pendulous. 8. The epiloon is larger. 9. The gall-bladder is longer. 10. The kidneys are rounder, and the ureters are also different from man. 11. The bladder is longer. 12. He has no frænum to the prepuce. 13. The bone in the orbit of the eye is sunk deeper. 14. He has not the two cavities below the tella turica. 15. The mastoid and styloid processes are extremely small. 16. The bones of the nose are flat. 17. The vertebræ of the neck are short, flat before, and their spinal apophyses are not forked. 18. He has no spinal apophyses in the first vertebræ of the neck. 19. He has thirteen ribs on each side. 20. The ossa ilia are longer, narrower, and less concave than in man. 21. He also wants the following muscles, which are found in man: the occipitales, frontales, dilitatories alarum nasi seu elevotores labij superioris, interspinales calli glutæi minimi extensor digitorum pedis brevis et transversalis pedis. 22. The following muscles are sometimes found in man, but not in the orang-outang, the pyramidales, caro musculosa quadrata, the long tendon and the fleshy body of the palmaris, the attolens, and retrobans oriculam. 23. The elevator muscles of the claricles of the orang-outang are like those of the ape, and different from man; as are also 24. The muscles called, longus colli, pectoralis, latissimus dorsi, glutæus maximus et medius, psoas magnus et parvus, iliacus, internus, et gasteronamius internus. And 25. He differs from man in the figure of the deltoides, pronator, radi teres, et extensor pollicis brevii.—Tyson’s Anat. of the Orang-Outang.
1. Tyson gives, as a particular character of man and the orang-outang, the having the hair on their shoulders inclined downward, and that on the arms upwards. It is true that most quadrupeds have their hair directed downwards, or backwards, but this is not without some exceptions. The sloth and the smallest species of ant-eater have the hair on their anterior parts inclined backward, and that on the crupper and loins directed forwards; therefore this character carries no great weight in comparing the orang-outang with man.
2. The four first differences also in the passage I have quoted are very slight, or ill-founded. The first is the difference of size, which character is very uncertain, especially as the author himself observes that his animal was very young. The second, third, and fourth, are drawn from the form of the nose, the quantity of hair, and other trivial circumstances. It is the same with many others, which may be retrenched; for example, the twenty-first character is drawn from the number of the teeth. It is certain that both this animal and man have the like number of teeth, and if the one in question had only twenty-eight, it ought to be attributed to its youth, for we know that the human race have not more in the early part of their days.
3. The seventh difference is likewise very equivocal; the scrotum of children is in general very tight, and this animal being young ought not to have had them pendulous.
4. The forty-eighth character of resemblance, and the twenty-first, twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, and twenty-fifth marks of difference, only denote the presence or shape of certain muscles, which as they vary in most individuals of the human species, ought not to be considered as essential characters.
5. Every difference and resemblance drawn from parts too minute, such as the apophyses of the vertebræ, or that are taken from the position and magnitude of certain parts, should be considered only as accessory characters; so that Tyson’s whole anatomical table may be reduced to the essential differences and resemblances which we have already mentioned.
6. I have thought it necessary to point out other more general characters of this animal, some of which have been omitted by Tyson, and others but badly indicated. First, The orang-outang is the only one of all the apes that has no pouches within his cheeks on each side of the jaw, in which to put the provisions before they swallow them, for the inside of his mouth is perfectly like that of man. Secondly, the gibbon, the Barbary ape, and all the baboon and monkey kind, except the douc, have their posteriors flat, with callosities on them. The orang-outang is the only one which has those parts plump, and without callosities. The douc also has no callosities, but then his posteriors are flat and covered with hair, so that in this respect the douc forms the shade between the orang-outang and the monkeys; as the gibbon and magot form the same knot with respect to the pouches on each side of the jaw. Thirdly, the orang-outang is the only animal who has the calfs of the legs, and fleshy posteriors. This character shews that it is formed much better than any other animal to walk upright; but as its toes are very long, and its heels higher situated than in man, it runs with greater ease than it walks, and there would be occasion for artificial heels higher than those of our shoes to enable it to walk easily for a long time together. Fourthly, though the orang-outang has thirteen ribs, and man only twelve, this difference does not approximate it nearer to the baboon or monkey than it removes it from man, because the number of ribs varies in most of those species, some of them having twelve, others eleven, ten, and so on. So that the only differences between the body of this animal and that of man are reduced to two, viz. the figure of the bones of the pelvis, and the formation of the feet; these, therefore, are the only considerable parts by which the orang-outang bears a greater resemblance to the other apes than it does to the human species.