avia, Feb. 18, 1781,* ([Footnote] *"Briefe
des Herrn v. Wurmb und des H. Baron von Wollzogen. Gotha, 1794." that
the specimen was sent to Europe in brandy to be placed in the collection
of the Prince of Orange; "unfortunately," he continues, "we hear that
the ship has been wrecked." Von Wurmb died in the course of the year
1781, the letter in which this passage occurs being the last he wrote;
but in his posthumous papers, published in the fourth part of the
Transactions of the Batavian Society, there is a brief description, with
measurements, of a female Pongo four feet high.

Did either of these original specimens, on which Von Wurmb's
descriptions are based, ever reach Europe? It is commonly supposed
that they did; but I doubt the fact. For, appended to the memoir 'De
l'Ourang-outang,' in the collected edition of Camper's works, tome i.,
pp. 64-66, is a note by Camper himself, referring to Von Wurmb's papers,
and continuing thus:--"Heretofore, this kind of ape had never been known
in Europe. Radermacher has had the kindness to send me the skull of one
of these animals, which measured fifty-three inches, or four feet five
inches, in height. I have sent some sketches of it to M. Soemmering at
Mayence, which are better calculated, however, to give an idea of the
form than of the real size of the parts."

These sketches have been reproduced by Fischer and by Lucae, and bear
date 1783, Soemmering having received them in 1784. Had either of Von
Wurmb's specimens reached Holland, they would hardly have been unknown
at this time to Camper, who, however, goes on to say--"It appears that
since this, some more of these monsters have been captured, for an
entire skeleton, very badly set up, which had been sent to the Museum
of the Prince of Orange, and which I saw only on the 27th of June, 1784,
was more than four feet high. I examined this skeleton again on the
19th December, 1785, after it had been excellently put to rights by the
ingenious Onymus."

It appears evident, then, that this skeleton, which is doubtless that
which has always gone by the name of Wurmb's Pongo, is not that of the
animal described by him, though unquestionably similar in all essential
points.

Camper proceeds to note some of the most important features of this
skeleton; promises to describe it in detail by-and-bye; and is evidently
in doubt as to the relation of this great 'Pongo' to his "petit Orang."

The promised further investigations were neve