48 ODOB^NUS EOSMAEUS ATLANTIC WALRUS. 



No author prior to Schreber (1775) appears to have met with 

 deciduous incisors, who found two such upper incisors on each 

 side in a young- skull in the Museum of Erlaugen. These he 

 correctly conjectured Avere temporary, disappearing' at a later 

 stage of life.* 



To Goethe, however, is given the credit of recognizing the 

 true character of the first tooth of the upper molariform 

 series. Says Camper (as quoted by Wieginanu) : "Es 1st der 

 Hr. Gothe, sachsenweimarscher Gekeimer Bath, der mir zuerst 

 die ossa mtermaxillana des Wallrosses und der Schneideziihne 

 desselben hat kennen lerneu, indent er mir eine vortreffliche 

 Abhandlung mit schonen Zeichnungen dieser Knocheii ver- 

 schiedener Thiere zugeschickt hatte." Camper, in criticising 

 Linne's errors regarding the Walrus,! gives four incisors ( 2 ~\^ 

 and four molars above and five below (=|) (or sometimes ouly 

 four below). The observations of Schreber, Goethe, and Cam- 

 per appear to have been generally overlooked by subsequent 

 writers, so that it was left for G. Cuvier to discover anew the 

 presence of deciduous incisors in the young Walrus. Between 

 the canines he recognized two incisors similar to the molars, 

 which he says the majority of observers had overlooked, because 

 they are not fixed in the intermaxillary, and between these 

 again two pointed small ones in young individuals. He gave 

 the number of molars as four on each side, above and below, 

 and stated that there are neither incisors nor canines in the 



is 27 inches, 7 of which are grafted into the scull ; its circumference is 8 

 inches. They stand about three inches asunder in the head, and at their 

 extremities 9 inches apart, bent a little downwards." H iuiory of Greenland, 

 etc., English translation, London, 1767, p. 126. 



* Schreber's account is as follows: " . . . . Die ERSTE Gattung, das iii- 

 sonderheit sogennante WALLKOSS, hat zwar, ob gleich kem Schrifsteller 

 etwas davon sagt, zween Vorderziihne in der olern Rinrilade; sie sind aber sehr 

 klein, ragen wenig aus ihren Holen hervor, und werden allem Ansehen 

 uach auserhalb dem Zahnfieische nicht zn bemerken seyn, zuinal da sie nicht 

 am Eande der obern Kinnlade, sondern mehr hineinwiiits stehen. Ich finde 

 sie an einem zur Naturaliensauinilung hiesiger Uuiversitiit gehorigen Wall- 

 rossschiidel; und da derselbe, besage seiner Grosse, von einem juugen 

 Thiere ist ; so glaube ich beynahe gar, dass sie bey zuuelmiendem Alter des 

 Thieres ausfallen und nicht wieder wachsen. Sio kouinien also hier in keine 

 weitere Betrachtung, als dass sie dem Systematiker eiueu Wink geben, dis 

 Thier nicht zu weit von dem Robbeugeschlechte zu entfernen." SauqetMere 

 Th. ii, p. 260. 



1 1 quote the French edition of Camper's Avorks (CEuvres, torn, ii, p. 480, 

 Paris, 1803), tho only one accessible to me. 



