ELEPHAS PRIMIGENIUS. 241 
one of the eight fossil species admitted im the compilation 
of M. H. V. Meyer, has been left scarcely doubtful by 
Cuvier :* it is founded on recent molars of the Hlephas 
africanus; and the great anatomist alludes to attempts 
that had been made to palm upon himself such teeth as 
fossils. I have met with no nearer approach to this 
nominal species among the numerous British Mammoths’ 
grinders that I have examined, than the example just 
quoted from the brick-earth at Grays; I need hardly 
say that I regard it as another of the numerous varieties 
to which the molars of the Mammoth were subject. 
The clefts that separate the transverse plates are deeper 
at the sides than at the middle of the tooth in all Mam- 
moths’ grinders; hence the ridges of enamel in a much- 
worn molar are confined to the outer and inner sides of the 
grinding surface, which is traversed along the middle by a 
continuous tract of dentine. The layer of enamel extends 
along the lateral clefts to this exposed tract, is reflected 
back upon the opposite side of each cleft, bends round the 
outer margin of the remaining base of the plate, and is 
continued into the next cleft, and so on. When the edge 
of this sinuous coat of enamel is exposed by abrasion of 
the masticating surface, it describes what Mr. Parkinson 
has called a “ deedalian line,” and he has figured two ex- 
amples of teeth so worn down in the “ Organic Remains.” + 
An original figure of the grinding surface of one of these 
molars, which was dredged up from the drift-gravel form- 
ing the bed of the Thames near London, is given at fig. 
94. Having noticed the structure in three specimens, Mr. 
Parkinson conceives it to be characteristic of a distinct 
species of Mammoth. But the ordinary teeth of the 
* “ Ossemens Fossiles,” tom. v. pl. ii, Additions, p. 496. 
+ Pl. 20. figs. 5 and 7. 
