~ 
MEGACEROS HIBERNICUS. 445 
Cerf & bots gigantesques, Cuvier, Ossemens Fossiles, 4to, 1823, tom. iv. p. 
70. 
Fossil Elk of Ireland, PARKINSON, Organic Remains, vol. iii. p. 313, pl. 
xx. fig. ii, (after Molyneux.) 
Cervus Hibernus, DersMareEst, Mammalogie, pp. 446, 685. 
Cervus megaceros, Hart, A Description of the Skeleton of the Fossil 
Deer of Ireland, 8yo. 1830. 
Fossil Dama of Ireland, HamiILtTon Smiru, Synopsis of the Species of 
Mammalia, Griffith’s Cuvier, 8yo., 1827, p. 306. 
Megaceros Hibernicus, OweEN, Report of British Association, 1843, p. 
237. 
Dr. Motyneux, to whom we owe the first account of 
the remains of the Gigantic Irish Deer, and by whom they 
were regarded as a proof that the American Moose was 
formerly common in Ireland, prefaces his description with 
the following observation. ‘ That no real species of living 
creatures is so utterly extinct as to be lost entirely out of 
the world since it was first created, is the opinion of many 
naturalists ; and it is grounded on so good a principle of 
Providence taking care in general of all its animal pro- 
ductions, that it deserves our assent.”* 
The numerous and incontrovertible, though marvellous, 
results of modern Paleontology, place in a strong light the 
danger of such a ‘ petitio principil, or presumption of the 
ways in which the benefits of a good Providence are dis- 
pensed ; and the fallacy of the conclusion founded thereon, 
in the present instance, is shown both by the now well 
determined diagnosis of the American Moose, whose di- 
mensions were much exaggerated in the earlier notices 
of the wild beasts of the North American colonies, and 
by the exact comparisons of the osteological characters 
of the Megaceros with those of all other known Cervine 
* Philosophical Transactions, vol. xix. p. 485. 
+ Molyneux cites ‘ Jocelyn’s New England Rarities’ as the source of his 
ideas regarding the American Moose. 
