382 Annals of the South African Museum. 



other, the most anterior placed close to the premaxillo-maxillary 

 suture. . . . On one side of one of the specimens, however, there is 

 an additional minute tooth near the suture, so that there are eight, 

 instead of seven milk teeth present in the jaw." 



"Below, . . . the germs of the permanent teeth are distinguish- 

 able as well as the milk teeth. The latter are here apparently only 

 four in number ; the posterior one, as in the upper jaw, is large and 

 two-rooted. . . . The three teeth in front of this large one are 

 minute, pointed, about equidistant from one another, . . . Between 

 the two most anterior of these teeth there is a larger one, equally 

 elevated in the jaw with them, but as yet quite uncalcilied, and 

 therefore no doubt merely the tip of one of the small anterior 

 permanent teeth." 



The two specimens examined by Oldfield Thomas were respec- 

 tively 14 and 18 inches long. Through the kindness of Dr. P6rin- 

 guey, of the South African Museum, I have had an opportunity of 

 examining the head of a newly-born Orycteroims afer. The whole 

 length of the animal was about 34 inches, and the skull measured 

 5 1 inches. My specimen is thus about twice the size of those 

 examined by Thomas. Being anxious to compare the condition of 

 the teeth with that in the specimens studied by Thomas, I clarified 

 the jaws in Xylol, and have been fortunate in discovering the 

 dentition in a most interesting condition. 



In the upper jaw there are in front three small teeth which I 

 believe to be milk incisors. Two of them are certainly incisors, and 

 the third most probably. All three are distinctly calcified. The 

 most anterior, which lies near the middle of the alveolar portion 

 of the premaxillary bone, is so small that it can only be seen with 

 difiBculty by the naked eye. The second and third are large enough 

 to be easily seen without a lens. They are rather nearer to each 

 other than is the second to the first. The third is practically in the 

 suture between the premaxillary and the maxillary bones, but is 

 apparently a premaxillary tooth and thus an incisor. All three 

 incisors are small, irregular, triangular calcifications. They are 

 evidently extremely degenerate, and probably have been con- 

 siderably absorbed. 



Behind the third incisor and close to it, but distinctly belonging to 

 the maxillary bone, is another small degenerate tooth, which I take 

 to be the milk canine. 



About 3 mm. behind this a very small degenerate tooth, which is 

 apparently the first milk premolar. About 4 mm. further back is a 

 second milk premolar, larger and broader than the first and with a 



