348 On the Great Mastodon. 



there are others placed anteriorly to them in young individuals, 

 which are shed successively. 



" Thus the number of effective jaw teeth, which can be 

 brought into action at one time, is eight in the young animal, 

 and four only in the old. 



" The roots of these teeth, like those of other animals, are 

 not formed until after the croten is perfected. They are found 

 complete only in such teeth as are already somewhat used.'' 



After reading the above quotations from Cuvier's " Gssemens 

 Fossiles,*" let any one attentively examine the specific characters 

 of the " new genus and species'" in the memoir above referred 

 to, and judge for himself of their validity. But for such 

 readers as may not have it in their power conveniently to refer 

 to the memoir in the Transactions of the American Philosophi- 

 cal Society, we will now quote a paragraph in the author's own 

 words, which affords a fair specimen of his notions of specific 

 characters. 



" The cabinet of our society (Am. Philos. Soc.) contains a 

 portion of an inferior maxillary bone, which differs in its form 

 from any of those hitherto described. This fragment consists 

 of the chin, the right ramus, with the posterior molares, and a 

 portion of the left ramus. The anterior molar has three denti- 

 cules, with two points each ; and a ridge posteriorly. The ra- 

 mus of this jaw is straiter and more cylindrical ; the height 

 from the base to the edge of the alveolae is less ; the groove for 

 the tongue broader and shallower^ and the direction of the teeth 

 less diverging than in the maxillary figured in plate xxiv. ; 

 the crowns of the teeth are also less elevated in the former 

 than in the latter." — Vid. vol. iv. Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. 

 p. 323. 



" Height, breadth, depth, direction"^ ! &c. 



On comparing a number of human jaws together, scarcely 

 two will be found to correspond exactly in these particulars. 



The author of " Tetracaulodon" renown appears to pay no 

 regard to the principles of classification ; yet he ought to have 

 been aware, that, whether " labouring for bread, or doing 

 something for fame,"* writers on natural science are not per- 

 mitted to swerve from established laws. 



• Vid. " Tetracaulodon" Memoir. Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. vol. iv. p. 318. 



