George Edwards is pleased that Linnaeus has received his little present safely [Edwards had sent plates from the forthcoming Gleanings of natural history]. He finds Linnaeus’s praise excessive, though. Edwards believes that the “Satyr”, the “Orang-outang” and the Chimpanzee are different species of animals. Edwards had Edward Tyson’s “Pygmy”, a male, as his model [Edwards refers to Tyson’s treatise about the subject, Orang-Outang, sive Homo Sylvestris]. Tyson, makes the teeth agree very nearly with those of men, which Edwards, too, has observed. Unfortunately, Edwards can give no information about the sexual organs of the females as his subject is dead.
Tyson has collected in his work the figures and descriptions of all the authors who had written before him on the Pygmy etc., and here they are treated as different species. There is a very small space between the canine teeth and the four flat teeth in the front of the mouth in Tyson’s figures, but no space between the canine teeth and the grinders.
The first 50 plates Edwards sent to Linnaeus are now published with their descriptions in French and English. The other 25 will remain unpublished till Edwards can make them up to 50. Edwards is grateful for Linnaeus’s notes, which will serve as an improvement to his descriptions, and he feels honoured by Linnaeus’s correspondence.