Buffon's Natural History. Volume 09 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History. Volume 09 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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