A skull of the Capijbara, Htjdrochcrrus Capybara, Er.\l., vvas exfii- 

 bited, and Mr. Ovvcn read some Notės thereon. After adverling in 

 terms of high eulogiiim to the genius of Cuvier, as shoun by his de- 

 tection of concealed affinities among the animal kingdom, he observed 

 that " perhaps the most extraordinary instance of the enlaiged views 

 vvhich result from unwearied observation of the internal stnicture of 

 animals is afforded by Cuvier's bold enunciation of the affinity of the 

 Elephant to that order of the Mammalia which contains the most 

 minute forms of the class." Mr. Owen dwelt in succession on each 

 of the evidences adduced in the ' Ossemens Fossiles' in support of 

 this affinity, and then proceeded as follovvs : 



" The truth of these observations vvas verv stronglv imprcssed on 

 my mind when examining the cranium of a huge Rodent, which Mr. 

 De ia Fons obligingly left with me forthe purposes of comparison, and 

 for the exhibition of which this evening the Committee is indebted 

 to that gentleman. The person from whom he procured it assured 

 him that it vvas from Africa; but this is only another of the numerous 

 instances of the little confidence to be piaced in the assertions of 

 ignorant salesmen, since the specimen presents all the characters of 

 a genus exclusively South American, v'iz., the Capybara, Hydrochcerus, 

 Erxl. It has every appearance of having belonged to an old animal, 

 and is much larger than a cranium in the museum of the Royal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons, vvhich, from its dentition, I had alvvays regarded 

 as having appertained to an adult specimen. Neveriheless, although 

 the cranium belonging to Mr. De la Fons is wholly deficient of the 

 teeth, as vvell as vvanting the lovver jaw, I have no doubt, from the 

 perfect accordance betvveen the tvvo specimens in the foims and con- 

 nesions of the several bones, that they are identical as to species. 



" There is, hovvever, a difference exhibited in the alveolce of the 

 lašt molar tooth in Mr. De la Fons's specimen, vvhich, although by 

 no means suflficient for the founding of a specific difference, is impor- 

 tant, as evidencing an additional analog}' between the molars of the 

 iiorfeni and those of the EZepAanf J r Jz., that the number of trans- 

 verse lamina: increases as the jaw enlarges vvith age, the vvhole num- 

 ber not coming into use at once. 



" In the Capybara, the posterior grinders, likę those of the Elephant, 

 present a greater number of component lamina than the anterior 

 ones vvhich are of earlier formation, Those of the upper javv, accord- 

 ing to the figure and description in the ' Ossemens Fossiles' (v. pi. 1 . 

 p. 24.) are composed of eleven lamince, of vvhich all but the first 

 (vvhich is notched externaliy) are simple. In the figuve too, it is 

 vvorthy of observation that the lašt or eleventh lamina is imperfect, 

 and exhibits a construction analogous to the imperfectiy-formed 

 lamincE or denticles in the Elephant's grinder, viz., a division into 

 component columns. In the vvork of M. Fred. Cuvier ' Sur les Dents 

 des Mammiferes,' the number oflamince in the lašt grinder of the upper 

 javv of the Capybara is stated as "onze ou douze ;" but eleven only are 

 exhibited in the figure, and we may suppose therefore the doubt as 

 to the precise number to be foundec} on uncertainty as to the pro- 



