36S Natural History. — Fossil Bones. 



He has accomplished this by his usual method, attending 

 to the relations which exist between the different parts of 

 the skeleton of each genus of animals; relations which 

 are not eventual, but which, on the contrary, are connected 

 with the whole of the organization ; since from them re- 

 sult the animal's mode of life, its strength or its weakness, 

 its agility or slowness ; in a word, its whole nature, which 

 is thus entirely impiessed on the smallest of its bones. 



The fragments of the mcgalonix hitherto discovered 

 consist of some bones of the thighs or legs, and several 

 phalana'cs, of which complete toes can be formed. These 

 bones have been found in America, and we are indebted 

 for the first publication of them to Mr. Jefferson, president 

 of the United States, who thought he saw in them an ani- 

 mal of the genus of the lion. Cuvier now proves that 

 these remains belong to an animal of the genus of the 

 sloth. 



He firstproves it by the first fossil phalangium, which form- 

 ed the extremity of the toe of a megalonix. This phalangium, 

 examined successively on its six faces, exhibits six faces of 

 the sloth, and excludes all other genera. The other pha- 

 lano"cs of the same toe examined in the same manner, each 

 in particular and independently of the rest, were also the 

 j)haianges of the sloth. These phalanges, when examined 

 in their articulations, and the relation of their length, ex- 

 hibit all the modifications by which this genus of animals 

 is characterized. 



From the perfect agreement of all these modifications, 

 one may no doubt conclude, with Cuvier, that the toe 

 formed by these phalanges was the toe of a sloth. 



The phalanges of the second toe, when examined in like 

 manner, lead to the same consequence. The insertion of 

 these toes in the bone of the foot, the form of the facets 

 where they are applied, and the remaining bones, all equally 

 prove the same truth. 



If one attend to this inevitable connexion of all the part* 

 of animals, and their reciprocal dependence, it will not be 

 necessary to see the other bones of the megalonix, to be 

 sensible that th^ same conclusions ought to be admitted in 

 reo-ard to them. But Cuvier has had the advantage of 

 bcui!'" able to remove even the smallest scruple, by inspect- 

 ing a fossil tooth of the megalonix brought from America 

 bv"-M. Palisot-Beauvois. This tooth is a tooth of the sloth ; 

 and this proof is equal to all the rest, since the teeth, by 

 their influence on the system of nutrition, furnish the 

 <<ure>t characters for the classification of animals. 



What 



