l55 AJhort Account of the Mammoth. 



mals, becaufe their teeth are incrufted with enamel, and be- 

 caufe they do eat flefh ; yet they are adapted for other food, 

 hv the rotatory motion of their jaws and the form of their 

 teeth : this rotatory motion does not exitt in the jaws of thofe 

 animals which live entirely upon flefli; for they are attached by 

 an oblong head or procefs inferted into a tranfverie groove, and 

 confequenlly have no other motion than up and down. In 

 graminivorous animals the under jaw is attached by means 

 of a confiderablv round head (condyloid procefs) to a pro- 

 minence or flat furface, fo that they ro/a/e; and, to favour 

 this motion, the coronoid procefs is generally thicker and not 

 fo lone as the condyloid ; whereas in carnivorous animals 

 the coronoid procefs is extremely flat and long, being never 

 acted on except Icngthwife. 



But it mull not even be fuppofed that an animal may be 

 of the mixt kind, unlefs we obferve a capacity for maftica- 

 tion ; without which we muft declare it exclufivcly carni- 

 vorous. 



Some objeft to the carnivorous nature of the mammoth 

 from its not having cutting or canine teeth. To this it may 

 be replied, that if we form our rule of judgment, as to whai 

 conftitutes a graminivorous animal, from the conftruc^ion of 

 an ox's jaw, the elephant would certainly be excluded, be- 

 caufe it has not incifores at leaft in the lower jaw : the faft is, 

 that all carnivorous as well as graminivorous animals difier 

 among themfelves with refpc6t to the number and fituatioti 

 of their teeth; and hence thev aflbrdcd to the fagaclous and 

 celebrated Linnaeus the moft infallible method of clafl^tica- 

 tion, which has fince been adopted, either wholly or partially, 

 bv all naturalirts. The probofcis of the elephant anfwers 

 the purpofe o\' incifores' : he therefore requires no others than 

 grinders, which entirely fill his jaws : hence he is com- 

 pletely graminivorous. And although the mammoth is de- 

 ficient i'n cutting teeth, and has no other canine teeth than 

 his enormous tufks, the deficiencies of which may have 

 been fupplied by a pair of large and powerful lips, indicated 

 by the unconnnon fmuofity on the front of the lower jaw ; 

 vet I am decidedly of opinion, fince it cannot be conlra- 

 difted by a fingle proof or hSi, that the mammoth was ex- 

 clufivcly carnivorous; by which I mean, that he made no 

 ufe of vccetable food, but either lived entirely on fleru or fifli ; 

 and not "improbably upon tliell-fifli, if, as there are many 

 rcafons tofuppofe, he was of an amphibious nature. I there- 

 fore only require afl^ent to thefc fa6ts: ift, The teeth are cer- 

 tainly oV the carnivorous kind: 2dly, They are not of the 

 nnxi kind, becau.«j they have not the Icaft rotatory motion, 



and 



