Anatomical Structure of certain of the Cetacea. 395 



strength, even after the teeth which were lodged in them have 

 been thrown off by the ordinary processes of dentition, I shall 

 not be in any way surprised at this, knowing as I do the infinite 

 power of Nature, which adapts and modifies all structure accord- 

 ing to the wants and habits of the animal. 



The cranium now on the table of the Society is somewhat 

 larger, and of a different shape, from the one I have just de- 

 scribed, and which I presume is still preserved in the University 

 Museum. The tusks or teeth, supported by the intermaxillary 

 bones, correspond in every respect to those which have been de- 

 scribed as milk-tusks by Sir E. HOME, and yet they are not milk- 

 tusks. They are as long as the so-named permanent ones of the 

 other head. To suppose them milk-tusks, we should be forced 

 to have recourse to conjectures totally inadmissible in anatomi- 

 cal inquiry. We might suppose them to be milk-tusks, which, 

 by some extraordinary accident, had not been thrown off at the 

 usual time, but had grown up and taken on the functions of the 

 permanent ones, which, in this individual, had not been deve- 

 loped. Now, conjectures of this kind lead to error, and are 

 altogether unnecessary in the present case. The tusks differ 

 as much in form in the two crania, as the tusks of the Asia- 

 tic elephant differ from those of the African one, and, there- 

 fore, naturalists would say that these animals must be specifi- 

 cally different *. I hesitate, however, in asserting this positively, 

 and would say rather that it amounts with other data, such as 

 the belief, on the part of the Malays, in whose seas these ani- 

 mals reside, that, to a great probability, there are two distinct 

 species of the dugong now inhabiting the Eastern Ocean. I 



* The difference in the tusks of the African and Asiatic Elephants is not con- 

 fined to mere form ; Mr ROBISON informs me that the ivory is much finer and more 

 dense in the former than in the latter. 



VOL. XI. PART II. 3 D 



