On the os penis of the chimpanzee (Troglodytes niger) and of the orang (Simia satyrus) / by Edwards Crisp.

  • Crisp, Edwards, 1806-1882.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the os penis of the chimpanzee (Troglodytes niger) and of the orang (Simia satyrus) / by Edwards Crisp. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    49 DR. E. CRISP ON THE OS PENIS OF THE CHIMPANZEE. Chimpanzee, when the anatomy of these apes excited less interest, I did not examine the male generative organs with sufficient care, and I inferred, as others had done, that no bone was present. In my more recent examinations I have been more minute, and, to my sur- prise, I find that both the Chimpanzee and Orang have a penis-bone as exhibited in the preparations before the Society and in the draw- ing which I now exhibit. (See woodcut, p. 48.) I first discovered this bone in a young Orang, and next in two Chimpanzees, now in my possession. Through the kindness of Mr. Flower, conservator of the Hunterian Museum, I examined all the male anthropoid apes in spirits at the College of Surgeons. In a very young Chimpanzee weighing about 5 lbs., and having only four incisor teeth, I found this bone small and acicular. In two Orangs, about two years of age, it appeared to be of about the size ot the specimens before the Society; but in these I judge only from external examination. This bone, I believe, is present in the Gorilla also, an animal that in many respects is more distant from the human family than the Chimpanzee. The bone in these young anthropoid apes (Orang and Chimpanzee) is about one-third of an inch in length, and about a line in width, with the extremities slightly enlarged. In the Chimpanzee it is rather shorter and thicker. What size it attains in the adult animal remains to be seen : it is probably as large as, or perhaps larger than the same bone in many of the lower Quadrumana. There is one thing, however, tolerably certain, that the presence of this bone is an indication of a great degree of inferiority, as regards place and position, in the animal scale. [From the Pkoceedings of the Zoological Society of London, January 10, 1865.]