346 (hi the Great Mastodmi. 



stance, however, elicited very little attention from the French 

 professors. Yet it is on the existence of this inferior tusk in 

 the jaw of the young individual from Orange county, above 

 referred to, that the author has attempted to found a new genus 

 of fossil quadrupeds, under the name of " Tetracaulodon." 



Admitting that the genus had been established on a solid 

 basis, the name is not a proper distinction, as it is equally ap- 

 plicable to the camel, hog, horse, deer, hippopotamus, fossil 

 tapir, &c. all of which possess ^^ four tibsks^ or tusks in each 

 jaw. 



It further displays inattention at least, if not ignorance of 

 established usages among naturalists, to found a genus on the 

 existence or absence of tusks in the lower jaw, independently 

 of any other specific differences in the organization of other 

 portions of the body. It is well known that the males of some 

 species of animals possess tusks in one or both jaws, whilst 

 the females of the same species are destitute of these teeth ; 

 just as some male animals possess hor7is whose females are des- 

 titute of them. 



On the first appearance of this pretended " tetracaulodon," 

 the inferior tusks were characterised by the best authorities on 

 this subject to characterise the young of the mastodon ; a sub- 

 sequent examination, however, of numerous jaw bones of the 

 mastodon in our various cabinets, soon demonstrated these in- 

 ferior tusks to be mere sexual peculiarities ; a goodly propor- 

 tion of the jaws of the adult mastodons being found to be thus 

 characterized, but in no one single instance were specific diffe- 

 rences observable in the jaw teeth, maxillary bones, or any 

 other portions of the skeletons. 



Vol. iv. p. 317. of the Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. contains the 

 lucubrations of a neophite in these matters, whose laborious ob- 

 servations as historian of the'pretended " Tetracaulodon," would 

 lead us to believe that he had clearly elucidated this subject, 

 and had ended the dispute in question. The author occupies 

 twenty-three pages of this quarto volume in letter-press, be- 

 sides ten plates (with numerous figures). With a critical acu- 

 men and depth of research peculiarly his own, he has " actually 

 discovered," from the same materials previously examined in 

 vain by naturalists of less penetrating zeal, three " new species 



